Another Detective
by Liz Yeriod
Summary: Alternative universe story in which Raito is both a suspect of being Kira and another world famous detective! Using the alias 'Smile', the help of BB, and shinigami eyes Raito helps L in the battle against Kira. -LxLight- Please read and review::
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Darude' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 1

_Message sent 1:00p.m. Number unknown._

_'Hi, what are you doing right now?'_

_Message sent 1:04p.m. Number unknown._

_'Something personal that would lead way to my identity if I told you. Why are you sending a message? It was a mistake to give you a phone number.'_

_Message sent 1:05p.m. Number unknown._

_'…Smile is mean.'_

_Message sent 1:08p.m. Number unknown._

_'What do you want, L?'_

_Message sent 1:11p.m. Number unknown._

_'I was bored. Smile makes me smile. :)'_

_Message sent 1:45p.m. Number unknown._

_'Did you need help with the Japan serial rapist case?'_

_Message sent 1:46p.m. Number unknown._

_'It took you a while to respond, did your girlfriend catch you texting? And no I do not need your help.'_

_Message sent 1:50p.m. Number unknown._

_'Why are you so desperate for information on my personal life? Why don't you want my help, the last case we did together was fun.'_

_Message sent 1:53p.m. Number unknown._

_'Justice needs no assistance, drop the subject.'_

_Message sent 2:01p.m. Number unknown._

_'Fine, what would you like to have a conversation about then?'_

_Message sent 2:04p.m. Number unknown._

_'What does Smile look like?'_

_Message sent 2:07p.m. Number unknown._

_'Attractive, women often throw themselves at me. Every day I get phone numbers in plenty.'_

_Message sent 2:10p.m. Number unknown._

_'Girlfriend?'_

_Message sent 2:18p.m. Number unknown._

_'no…how do you look L?'_

_Message sent 2:20p.m. Number unknown._

_'Messy and people often call me ugly'._

_Message sent 2:20p.m. Number unknown._

_'aw…poor detective'_

_Message sent 2:30p.m. Number unknown._

_'At least I have an excuse for not having a girlfriend'_

_Message sent 2:35p.m. Number unknown._

_'I have never found someone intelligent enough!'_

_Message sent 2:38p.m. Number unknown._

_'Is Smile shallow towards ugly people?'_

_Message sent 2:40p.m. Number unknown._

_'Are you mobile-flirting L?'_

_Message sent 2:43p.m. Number unknown._

_'You decide'._

_Message sent 3:00p.m. Number known._

_'Guess what L? You're in me._

_Message sent 3:04p.m. Number unknown._

_'?'_

_Message sent 3:08p.m. Number unknown._

_'smi-L-e. but in person it would be the other way around._

_Message sent 3:04p.m. Number unknown._

_'?'_

_

* * *

_

"Stop texting and bring up the phone to my desk."

Raito groaned slightly at the teacher's unreasonableness but decided against saying 'Do you realize I'm one of the world's greatest detectives named Smile and I need to finish my conversation with the world's other greatest detective, L'.

Turning off the phone and wiping the memory on every part of the phone with a few clicks, Raito readied himself to give up Smile's phone.

"He looks like he is blushing do you think he was talking to a girlfriend."

"Don't think he has one."

"I hope he doesn't."

The incompetent teacher smiled as Raito sat down the phone. Within the next few minutes the bell signaled the end of the school day so Raito decided to head home. Remembering a stop he had to make before going home, Raito walked the opposite direction of the school.

* * *

Windows climbed up the two-story building in a very western contemporary styled office building. Looking up towards the top, Raito saw Beyond standing on the balcony with a jar of dripping strawberry jam.

A few years ago, when the BB LA case occurred, Raito under the alias 'Smile' saved Beyond from having to go to prison. Now, Beyond served as Smile's proxy. Since the case he had received a slight make over, so he looked less like the murder he once was. He had shorter but still spiky black hair, with red streaks and contacts that made his red eyes appear green. The look of a rebellious teenager was completely with piercings on his lip and ears.

Raito went into the building and towards the balcony that Beyond stood on. "She does not have much longer to live B but there's still no reason to kill her", he whispered.

Beyond was startled but showed no reaction. "I know Raito…but you of all people understand what it is like to have these eyes. To see 'Kame Akira' and know in two hours she will die."

"I understand, the world is red but you must understand the value of life, the power of justice".

"You've been talking to him again?"

"Just texting him."

"You still do not want me to tell you how he looks?"

Slipping from the standard Japanese they had been speaking into Danish, Raito replied. "If I wanted you to tell me, I would have asked."

Beyond replied in the same language, "You're getting better at the Danish accent."

Raito said thanks in French, "merci."

"Your obsessed with him, what about his name?" Beyond said allowing himself to use a teasing sing song voice when he said obsessed.

"The reason I came was to ask if you could arrange away to destroy a phone that got token from me by a teacher".

"Which phone?"

"The blue English one," Raito replied.

"Done."

"Thanks Beyond."

"Can I throw the jam jar at the office building across from us?"

"No."

"Plea-"

"No."

"You're no fun."

Raito yawned and walked out of the building, careful not to stay to for an extended period of time and careful not to make the route or day he visited routine.

The walk home was longer than usual, he missed texting L. The detective would not work together on any more cases if he kept being unresponsive.

Raito's mind drifted back, as he walked, to the conversation between him and L. It sounded like L was flirting with him over the phone! He found that hilarious since it was so improbable. Thinking about L and his relationship was quite awkward; two detectives that are best friends with each other but have never even seen each other. Maybe the next case they worked on L would reveal himself, Raito did not want to lose the silent game.

After arriving home his sister pulled him off to help her with homework and he complied.

* * *

I know.  
You know.  
Tell me,  
tell me how to be,  
tell me you know me  
I know it's not real,  
it's just fantasy.


	2. Chapter 2

**xXx Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'My American Heart' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 2

_Darkness filled the outside world, but in only elimination filled the office Raito's father did paper work in. At the time Raito was only twelve years-of-age but understood what light in the society's detestable state was by watching his father bring justice to criminals._

_Sitting and reading a book on the ground at the edge of the desk, young Raito was in a perfect spot to catch the paper falling of the desk._

_'Case Information: January Deaths Serial Killings'_

_Raito's eyes widened slightly, this was a real case file, an unsolved case, to be more specific. His eyes began to slide down the page and his fingers slipped over the edge of the desk to read the rest of the files._

_Even though the cases were marked as being unsolved, Raito was able to estimate who had committed the crime within a few minutes of reading the file. The next file he grabbed had markings scattered throughout the pages, his father was most likely working on it currently._

_His father was letting out slow breaths, which made it seem as if he was sleeping. Raito smiled and begin to work out who the murder in the case was. According to the file all the main suspects had been killed, Raito's eyes confirmed this. As he looked at their photos he saw a name but no time of death, which meant they were all dead._

_When Raito flipped the page he gasped slightly, the main suspect that had been under the highest surveillance was still alive but the file said he was dead! Raito pondered how to handle the situation. When he was much younger he had informed his mother about the red text above everyone's heads but she seemed to think he was joking. Raito knew he could not tell his father why he knew that the suspect was not dead._

_ The police had a database of different people and places; he could hack into his father's computer and find solid proof. This seemed like a sound idea, so Raito did so. The password was not very difficult, 'Sayu-Raito1012'. Maybe he should mention to his father the need for a more encrypted passcode. Raito typed in the suspect's name to the main search engine._

_Realizing the suspect was foolish enough to not cover their tracks, helped Raito. The fool had not even terminated the lease on his apartment and was still actively using his credit card!_

_Raito opened a new window on the computer to send an email._

_'To whom it may concern,_

_Kei Masao is not dead. Because of this fact it may be inferred that he is the murder._

_Sincerely,_

_: )'_

_Before sending this message, and series of attachments detailing the proof of Kei's life, Raito put in to practice a technique he had learned in his book. 'Leaving Your IP Untraceable', had been then title of the book. Taking a few measures to ensure he would not be traced, Raito confirmed no one would realize a child sent the message._

_Since he was already sending the message, he also added his thoughts on at least thirty other cases. All his emails were sent from different email addresses and sets of IP addresses but they all had a uniform ': )' at the end._

_The following day, Raito's father came home and told him someone had dropped over 30 hints for different cases. His father thought it was probably a new detective._

_Raito smiled slightly, this was going to be interesting._

_

* * *

  
_

L stared at his phone, cursing Smile for not responding.

Watari had brought him a velvet cake with creamy frosting. L jabbed the fork into the cake, making the top of the cake appear to be bleeding out the reddish fluff from inside of the cake.

Vaguely hearing Watari ask if something was wrong, L nodded and frowned slightly.

"Does it have to do with Smile again?"

L nodded and pretended to be focused on the blank screen in front of him.

"I have a case that might distract you…"

"What is it?"

"Mass amounts criminals around the world are dying from heart attacks."

L allowed the fork he had the cake in to fall to the table in front him and ruin the hotel's tablecloth.

"Here's the case file."

Taking the files, L read the information looking for inconsistencies. There was no evidence of foul play; it was almost as if the killer had some divine power. Such thoughts were quickly dismissed, they were illogical. He set down the files and turned to his laptop, quickly opening up several databases to search through files.

A noise sounded from the computer and a message appeared advertising a message located in the email inbox that only a select few people had the address for. L turned his head to the side slightly as he questioned who the sender might be.

_'From: : )'_

"Oh…" L whispered lightly, remembering that he supplied this address to Smile during the case they worked on together.

_'Sorry that I did not respond to the message on the phone. That number is no longer of any use, my phone has been destroyed. I wanted to ask you if you are looking into Kira'._

L smiled, they were always on the same page as far as cases. Any case that Smile found worthy of his time was also worthy of L's time. Sending his fingers across the keyboard, L wrote a simple reply.

_'Yes, I claim the case.'_

Deciding it would be quite some time before he replied, L decided to go out for ice cream. He did not want to join the crowd but felt that while he was there he could have a different environment to think in.

The walk to the ice cream shop was only a few blocks but it felt like an eternity to the detective who kept watching people. Their careless lives filled with such petty thoughts and actions. In most cases L did not belittle humanity, but watching their behavior as he walked he felt no other option then to do so.

Reaching the shop at last, L was relieved to find it was small and had few people. The ice cream shop was styled to look like a garden, with each tub of ice cream held in petal like pink containers.

The women at the container smiled at him and asked if he needed assistance.

"Can I have one of everything on the left side of that menu?" L asked in his monotonous voice.

The women was about to laugh until she realized he was serious and made a pout like face at all the work ahead of her in preparing the sugar feast.

L sat down on a bar style chair that was in front of a television, he watched as a criminal was shown on the screen. Moments later another news break came up and the criminal was reported dead. He sighed at the news and looked around the ice cream shop for something to do while he waited.

A man with long black hair and law books sat in the corner; the man had a pen and was writing something in a black notebook.

When L approached he heard the man mumbling to himself 'delete'.

"May I ask what you are deleting?" L watched as the man literally jumped at his voice.

"Um…just a phrase I use to help me remember some laws", the black haired student replied, gesturing to the law books. He carefully hid his notebook out of reach.

L was about to question this when the women at the container's voice rang out to inform his of his awaiting ice cream. Without hesitation L walked away and grabbed his four cones and five bowls of ice cream.

Eating the ice cream proved to be an efficient help to his thought process. L had realized in the Kira case that 'Kira' needed both a name and face to kill, Kira also killed from a distance without having to be there. He quickly formulated a plan to prove this but first he would have to narrow down Kira's location.

L looked down at his current bowl of ice cream, he had subconsciously carved a smiley face into the creamy cold substance. A slight flush filled his emotionless face, as he wondered what Smile really looked like.

A ringing sounded in L's pocket, Watari was calling to inform him on the preparations for the laptop to speak to police and a broadcast to be made when they finally tracked the general location of Kira.

Finally finished with his ice cream, L left the shop and walked back to the hotel he was currently staying at.

When he finally arrived he had already thought through several things. One, was that he was going to reveal himself to a small group of police officers and two was by doing so he would eventually show himself to Smile in one way another.

The thought of meeting the anonymous person made L have the cat like grin he usually only had when giving speeches about justice.

* * *

Raito sat at his room's desk, staring at a blank piece of paper and thinking of what to write for his school paper. It was quite boring to go to school, he did not know what he might have done if he had not become a detective. The idea of living the static lifestyle of everyone else almost made Raito want to fall asleep out of boredom.

His thoughts moved on from these to the case he was working on. 'Kira' was what the murder was being called by the public eyes; 'Kami' was the name others had given him. Fool is the only name Raito could think of, although he figured if he might have under different circumstances done something similar.

These thoughts were seemingly annoying so Raito decided to think about other things. L was pulled into his head but before he could allow his mind to work on that subject he was interrupted. L had sent a response to his email. Without giving much thought he wrote a bland reply.

'I already told the police I was helping, we can work together. I will even tell you my theory: Kira is in Japan.'

Finally there was a case that might be important enough to make L show himself, hopefully.

A sudden thought made a frown form on his face. What if L meets him and thinks that he is an immature teenager? What if he would be ashamed to learn his friend was only thirteen when they started having intellectual discussions?

Forcing himself to stop thinking, Raito slide all of his 'Smile' things into a hidden compartment of his desk drawer and then worked on something that required no thought, school work.

Raito's mother called him in for dinner and he sat quietly, allowing his mind to focus on the television show his sister was watching and the nice food his mother had prepared.

* * *

Your name is devastation  
You filled us with frustration  
You could have fooled anyone  
We handed up the lucky ones

And so you stood us up  
And you let us down  
Now you're backing off  
So we're running away  
I think your brain got lost in the airwaves


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: In the reviews I noticed someone asked about how old L was and the fact that Raito 'is thirteen'. Raito 'is' not thirteen, he 'was' thirteen as all people are because age is continuous. In the flash back/past part of chapter 2 he was 12 and he mentioned that when he first started talking to L he was 13. At the moment in the story he is 17, similar to the Kira case in Death Note, and L is 24-ish. Another thing, thanks for all the reviews! I love reading them. Oh...and for the plot of this story it may be noted that people with the eyes do not have their time of death show up to others similar to death note owners. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'The Blaqk Year' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 3

_'I already told the police I was helping, we can work together. I will even tell you my theory: Kira is in Japan.'_

L for a moment felt like complaining about the theory and questioning the idea's validity. In truth, L knew that Smile was right and that he himself had overlooked the first death Kira had publicly inflicted.

To come to this conclusion, Smile must have also realized the connection between the criminals that were shown on the news and the criminals that died.

_'I want to broadcast a message to Japan. I will have a criminal say the message, saying that they are L.'_

Anyone else would need a long explanation as to why a criminal needs to deliver the message, rather than himself, and why a broadcast was being made but L knew Smile would not need such explanations. The broadcast would demonstrate the fact that Kira could kill from a distance with only the use of a name and face.

Watari entered the room and L turned to him.

"Bring the laptop over to the ICPO", L said and then added, "and while you're out get some cake we are almost out".

With a quick nod, Watari followed the instructions.

L saw a message advertising another new message. It had only taken Smile a few minutes to reply to the message.

_'Broadcast it in one city after another and tell Kira it is worldwide.'_

L grinned at the message. With Smile's help it would take no time to bring down Kira, supernatural power or not. L sent another message.

_'I am going to talk to the ICPO and then make that the first broadcast, probably in Kanto. Would you like to join the discussion with the ICPO?'_

Almost instantly a message popped up on the screen once again.

_'Only if your there. When?'_

L thought about this, he calculated how long it would take Watari to get over there from the hotel.

_'Ten minutes.'_

There was no reply after that, L decided that Smile was getting prepared. He was sure that Smile was close enough to the region to send Beyond over in time. Sure enough, when ten minutes had past and L listened as Watari announced to quarreling police investigators that L had already decided to take the case, Beyond was only a few seconds after.

The changes Smile had made Beyond undergo physically, in L's opinion, showed his figurative changes as well. His piercings showed submission to the norm and his dyed hair showed that he could accept other people as long as they accepted his differences-just like the hair dye was strikingly different but blending with the black hair.

Also now the boy no longer looked like L!

"Hi Watari", the disguised Beyond on the screen spoke stopping L's reasoning.

"B…" Watari acknowledged with hidden hint of fear.

"How are you?"

"Fine and yourself?"

"Great, I have to set up this thingy for Smile to talk though."

"I do as well, for L."

The officers in the room watched, showing little concern for the total disregard of their presence in the room.

Both laptops were set up but only L's appeared to be on and had a Gothic styled L on it. L decided to begin since Smile had done nothing.

"Greetings to all at the ICPO, I am L", he began and a girlish computer laugh sounded from the speaker of Smile's computer. "WHAT!" The slightly annoyed L hissed although the hiss was lost as just a statement in the voice scrambler.

"Nothing…" the computer generated voice said. L would never understand why Smile had to use the computer generated voice of a girl, it annoyed him greatly. He forgot what he was suppose to say next so simply skipped ahead in his speech.

"This case cannot be completed without the full cooperation of the ICPO that is all the police organizations that you represent throughout the world. You need to make the decision to fully support the investigation at this meeting. Also I need cooperation from Japan's national police agency. Whether the person is an individual or a group there is a strong possibility they are Japanese and even if they are not we can be sure that they are hiding in Japan. Why Japan you might ask. I think I will be able to provide proof once I directly confront-"

Laughter from the other computer filled the room once again.

"What is so funny?" L demanded the other computer to answer.

"Just wondering how many times you said that speech in a mirror then realized you probably did not since you would not have to show your face anyways. Then I thought about the fact I went over what I was going to say in a mirror even though no one would see me", the computer admitted. It was Beyond's turn to laugh.

L decided that Smile must be very egocentric about his personal appearance, based on Beyond's reaction. Maybe Smile was being serious when he said the statement about women 'throwing themselves at him'. L tried to think of the most attractive person he knew but no one he thought of had the look of intelligence that would fill the eyes of Smile.

Someone in the audience cleared their throat and then everyone exploded into a series of questions. Beyond glanced at a message on his phone and then took out a pocket knife and jabbed it through Smile's computer.

"It appears Smile will not be answering questions or completing his prepared speech", Beyond said with a sadistic smile and then left without another comment.

A computer generated growl came through the speaker on L's computer as the door closed behind Beyond.

L slammed the lid of the laptop back at the hotel. If Smile did not have to answer questions, L found no reason for himself to do so.

Watari would be upset that he did not explain himself to the pathetic excuses for detectives but at the rash moment L did not seem to care.

After the world famous detectives' vivid display of childishness and disrespect, as well as the intensity of the case at hand many were uneasy but they accepted L's request for cooperation.

* * *

Raito felt bad for asking Beyond to end the discussion of Smile's part but his sister was asking who he was talking to on the phone and he could not let his sister or L find out about his alternative identities.

Telling his sister a simple lie, Raito slipped out a brand new phone from his drawer to talk to L without his sister knowing.

_Message sent 11:57 a.m. Number unknown._

_'When are you going to do the broadcast?'_

_Message sent 12:00 p.m. Number unknown._

_'In a few hours. So, you got a new phone?'_

_Message sent 12:11p.m. Number unknown._

_'Yes. So…L…what we were talking about the other day…personal lives and stuff, what do you have outside of detective work? Family? Another job? Hobbies?'_

_Message sent 12:16p.m. Number unknown._

_'I have three…little brothers and Watari is like a father to me, for a hobby I like tennis. What about you?'_

_Message sent 12:23 p.m. Number unknown._

_'I have parents, a sibling, and a fake sibling that understands me more than anyone else. My hobby is being a detective and you'._

_Message sent 12:28 p.m. Number unknown._

_'You are also my hobby Smile'_

_Message sent 12:32 p.m. Number unknown._

_'It will be a shame when you don't talk for a while after I catch Kira before you."_

_Message sent 12:37 p.m. Number unknown._

_'Dream on…'_

_Message sent 12:42 p.m. Number unknown._

_'I dream about you all the time, too bad I don't have a face to go with the letter'._

_Message sent 12:49 p.m. Number unknown._

_'I could say the same, all I have is a smile. It would be nice to see your face, learn your real name.'_

_Message sent 1:00 p.m. Number unknown._

_'You just sounded very Kira-ish L.'_

_Message sent 1:11p.m. Number unknown._

_'I highly doubt either of us our Kira based on our previous discussions on justice.'_

_Message sent 1:19p.m. Number unknown._

_'Three, or wait, four years of discussions on justice and cases…only recently have we spoken about anything more personal.'_

_Message sent 1:25p.m. Number unknown._

_'You were complaining the other day that I was speaking about personal things…Now you say you enjoyed such discussions. Smile is confusing.'_

_Message sent 1:34p.m. Number unknown._

_'At least with ourselves being so confusing neither of us will get bored.'_

_Message sent 1:40p.m. Number unknown._

_'Unless I outlive you.'_

_Message sent 1:48p.m. Number unknown._

_'Are you calling me careless or attempting to gain my age? I cannot tell._

_Message sent 2:00p.m. Number unknown._

_'Find a way to get a live news broadcast from Kanto…I am about to begin the broadcast._

_

* * *

_

_Message sent 2:35p.m. Number unknown._

_'…'_

_Message sent 2:40p.m. Number unknown._

_'My general thoughts are the same...that was unbelievable'_

_Message sent 2:55p.m. Number unknown._

_'L I think after that you need to meet with some of the Kanto police and show them your trust in order to gain loyalty. Especially after what happened the Lind L. Taylor. '_

_Message sent 2:59p.m. Number unknown._

_'Why can't you do it?'

* * *

_

As soon as L typed the message a failed to send message appeared on his phone, Smile was rather clever or just plain annoying. He would soon see L but L still may never see him! It was not fair.

"Watari ", L called and waited for the man to enter before requesting in dept files on all members of the Kanto police.

After the files were brought to him, L calculated who would be included in the final task force before looking through their files.

Yagami Soichiro's file for some reason felt slightly empty. Was he that boring of a person or where his files skimmed by someone with enough power in the government to delete these personal files? L decided it was most likely the first possibility, since the second was improbable.

The inside of the file was odd as well. There were several pictures of his daughter and wife but Yagami's son only had two pictures; one as a four year old toddler and one side view with hair draped slightly over his face but not enough to hide the smile that was far to cunning for any seventeen year old.

"What are you hiding Yagami Raito?" L asked aloud.

* * *

Past the noise that criticized  
They were blinded by the fires  
Leaving ashed on our walls  
Serving fire to the dark  
Running forward  
Sinking backwards  
Singing sorrow on our words  
Could never reach our destiny  
Only God could ever save us  
But our time will not obey us


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Really love the reviews! At the request of one of the reviewers I attempted a longer chapter. This chapter follows the plot of Death Note closely...I hope you enjoy. Oh the thing at the coffee shop happened to me in real life so I hope you find it amusing. The next chapter will have Raito and L meeting!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Bullet For My Valentine' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 4

L set the papers he had been looking through down on the table. The suggestion from Smile was ridiculous, there was no way he would show his face to other people and let them know he was L! If it was only Smile…maybe he would show himself, just for him but in any case for now he would remain a letter.

Entering the room and waiting to be acknowledged, Watari stood twitching his mustache in annoyance.

"Watari arrange for agents from the FBI to be sent in, we require assistance in investigating some things", he said and vaguely gestured towards the files of the Kira Task Force agents.

"Should I inform Smile as well of this?"

"No."

Watari looked puzzled by this, so L decided to elaborate the answer.

"I don't like to loose and if I tell Smile he might get to Kira first."

With a nod of acceptance, Watari left the room to make arrangements.

L glanced at his computer; there was a message from Smile.

'I know what you're thinking; it's not a good idea. You will lose the police's trust in an instant!'

A smile formed on L's face after reading the message.

"You are just mad you didn't think about it first", he said jokingly to the computer.

In truth this assumption was one of L's first mistakes.

The FBI would start the tracking in a few days time.

* * *

Raito had come up with ideas of his own.

The killings were occurring between 4pm until 2am on weekdays Japanese time; 68% of them occurred between 8pm and 12am. There was also a great variation of time of weekends, and holidays.

The culprit was most likely a student, especially with the drive of justice they exhibited. Surprisingly, the ideas were similar to Raito's own sense of justice but Raito knew he would never kill anyone with the chance he already had to bring proper justice and redemption as detective. Kira is, as Lind L. Taylor properly stated, 'evil'.

Before he embarked on the wonderful journey to a peaceful night's sleep, he sent another message to L.

_Message sent 12:16p.m. Number unknown._

_'Good night detective'_

Morning was serving its purpose; Raito mourned the fact that he had to get up for the day. He silently wished he had a life similar to L's, were his entire career was detective work and, although he was reclusive, he did not have another identity.

Raito sometimes wondered why he hid his identity from his family, making him have a hidden identity. At first, this hiding act was for the convenience of the police not knowing the age of Smile but now that Raito was older this reasoning was obsolete. He pushed these thoughts aside to head to school.

Raito like any other detective had a sense of paranoia, and today when he walked to school this sense was active. At every turn he noticed a man in a long coat. He was greatly annoyed by this development, and wondered why he was being followed.

There was no way it was an agent of Kira, right? And they couldn't know Raito was Smile!

Coming to a decision then, Raito knew that if the person was there when he walked home he was going by the building Beyond was at and borrowing a weapon.

Upon entering the school's grounds, the tail seemed to vanish. Raito was relieved by this development and preceded to his normal school day activities. He greeted all the people that were always happy that 'the Yagami Raito' knew their names.

It was amusing that both as a normal high school student and as one of the world's greatest detective people viewed him as superior to a normal being. Despite this fact Raito did not act arrogant, his work as a detective and the few times L had outwitted him had served the purpose of humbling him.

The day was just as boring as always, the teachers bothering him to answer questions that the teachers probably did not even know the correct answers to and random students following him like puppies. Today had one highlight to it; someone said something that Raito found very humorous.

"Yagami-san, why do your eyes look red sometimes?" Takada Kiyomi had asked the question.

Raito smiled at this and leaned closer so that he was breathing next to her ear. He felt her shiver slightly at this contact.

"I see death" he whispered the words in the creepy way he often heard Beyond speak.

Takada Kiyomi had a face of shear fear when Raito walked away. At least the girl would no longer be bothering him.

After effortlessly completing the rest of the day's classes, Raito began to turn in order to walk home until he saw the edge of a coat twirl towards him in his perifial vision.

The cunning smile that Raito only wore when he had no need for a mask of innocence and normalcy filled his face. He walked to the office building he had been at only a few days earlier and entered, instead of heading home.

From the cameras within and outside the building, Raito could see the man's face. He was talking into a cell phone, and Raito regretted not installing audio bugs outside. Above the man's head hung the name Raye Penber, an American name if Raito was not mistaken.

Without consulting Beyond on the matter, Ratio grabbed a thin firearm from a cabinet in the building and draped a hooded jacket over himself in order to hide his appearance. He then exited through the side door, opposite to where Penber was standing.

Raye Pender quickly spun to face the shadow that had blocked the solid rays of afternoon sunlight. Pointed directly between Pender's eyes was a gun welded by a hooded figure that stood close to the building, hidden by the sun's dark casted shadow next to the building.

"Hello Raye Pender, what brings you to Japan?" Raito said in English, with a flawless accent. Amused by the man's surprised and almost fearful expression, he took a step closer and loaded the gun. "A quick answer would be appreciated."

"I am investigating an occurrence."

"L brought Americans…" Raito whispered the words with a bemused tone.

There was no notice taken as an apprentice at a local law firm's building listened from a nearby balcony nor was the whisper of the word delete taken into consideration by anyone.

Raito did not even find it the least bit odd when Raye Pender walked away with an entranced look on his face, despite Raito's screams and threats.

No one noticed as Raye Pender picked up a piece of paper that had been placed carefully by a law firm's door and then scribbled down the names of the twelve FBI agents sent by L to Japan. However, in a few hours when L got the news of the FBI agents' death by heart attack he took into consideration the fact that Raye Pender, who had been investigating Yagami Raito, died a few minutes later then everyone else.

* * *

_Message sent 5:00a.m. Number unknown._

_'Smile I need to tell you something.'_

_Message sent 5:11a.m. Number unknown._

_'You brought FBI agents from America and Kira killed them all, while they were investigating members of the Kira Task Force and their families?'_

_Message sent 5:15a.m. Number unknown._

_'No…actually I was going to tell you I like cake. How did you find out about the agents?'_

_Message sent 5:23a.m. Number unknown._

_'Luck, I found one of the bodies'._

_Message sent 5:33a.m. Number unknown._

_'I am now deducing that Smile is in Kanto.'_

_Message sent 5:39a.m. Number unknown._

_'They'll let anyone call themselves the world's greatest detective now-a-days…did it honestly take you that long to figure that out?'_

_Message sent 6:00a.m. Number unknown._

_'I also think Smile-kun is Japanese'_

_Message sent 6:21a.m. Number unknown._

_'Your English.'_

_Message sent 6:38a.m. Number unknown._

_'…Smile-kun show me his entire deck of good cards, it defeats the purpose of the game'_

_Message sent 7:12a.m. Number unknown. _

_'Trust me I have plenty more aces'_

_Message sent 7:19 a.m. Number unknown._

_'A deck of cards only has four'_

_Message sent 7:37 a.m. Number unknown._

_'The real world has imaginary numbers'_

_Message sent 7:46a.m. Number unknown._

_'I have a Kira suspect'_

_Message sent 7:59a.m. Number unknown._

_'I do as well'_

_Message sent 8:22a.m. Number unknown._

_'Too bad yours isn't Kira!'_

_Message sent 8:33a.m. Number unknown._

_'Don't shout at me, I'll give you a cookie if I am wrong.'_

_Message sent 8:45a.m. Number unknown._

_'I don't want a cookie from Smile, I want a kiss.'_

_Message sent 8:51a.m. Number unknown._

_'But that would be a reward for both of us.'_

_Message sent 9:00a.m. Number unknown._

_'We should both be rewarded for catching Kira, I must go I am meeting with the Kira Task Force'.

* * *

_

Starring at the phone in shock, Raito wondered how L got the members to meet with him without Raito noticing. It must have been the five Kira Task Force meetings that Smile missed. Raito smiled, Smile was not very respectful for order unlike Yagami Raito who could not do without order.

If he kept letting L get ahead of him Kira would be dead and L would be one step closer to 'the best' detective rather than 'one of the best'. He needed to focus on discovering something, one decisive clue that would bring him closer to finding Kira.

Raito pushed his things back into the secret compartment of his desk and began to work out some things regarding the FBI agents' deaths.

Raye Pender had died last; it was Raito's fault for announcing his name to the world. This also meant that Kira was located somewhere near Smile's headquarters.

Based off of Raito's theory of Kira being a student, it was likely Kira was working as an associate or apprentice. The law firm near Smile's office building came to mind. It was probable that Kira was listening to the conversation with Raye Pender and had somehow controlled him when he walked away.

Raito sent a message to Beyond about this idea and added instructions in case something should happen to him, Kira might already have Raito's name and be waiting for an opportunity to kill him.

Raito needed fresh air, he felt uneasy. As he walked down the stairs, he overheard his sister arguing with his mother about bringing clothes to his working father. This caused a smile to form on his face. An advantage L did not have is having personal ties with the Kira Task Force; he could meet L without him knowing!

"I'll go, I could use a break" Raito stated. Sayu thanked him and he stopped himself from thanking her instead. He would only get as far as the reception desk but that was a lot closer to finding new information then he was now.

As he walked Raito attempted to call his father but the line would not go through, he must still be with L. He entered the police building and saw a frantic woman at the desk requesting to talk to the task force, who as Raito thought were not present.

He approached the desk and left the clothing. The receptionist, who recognized him from some insurance case he gave assistance the police with, asked him if he was going to help with the Kira case. For a moment Raito panicked but his face remained emotionless, there was no way the foolish man could know anything.

"Yes. If all goes well I may be able to beat L" he said happily and it was true, since L's leads were far different then Smile's.

The women standing beside Ratio was asking about the Kira Case again. He interrupted.

"Excuse me…my father is leading the Kira Investigation"-and I am Smile-"do you want to leave a message with me? His cell phone is off so I can't tell him immediately but they are probably busy." Raito took the chance to look above the women's head at the floating name and numbers.

A gasp escaped Ratio's lips. "Naomi Misora?" He asked in a whisper.

Her eyes filled with shock for a moment and then it wore off and she lifted a finger into the air and drew a smile shape.

Raito nodded and the women threw her arms around him in a hug.

"Aw…I have not seen you since you in years" she said and then glanced at the receptionists for a moment and then asked, "How is he?" The last time she saw Raito was when he was a young Japanese boy trying to convince her that Beyond Birthday deserved redemption.

"Great actually but…" Raito tilted his head towards the door to explain that he wanted to walk and talk. After she nodded and they were outside Raito began to speak again. "I believe Kira is staying at the law office next to where I am keeping Beyond. If Kira finds out who we are, a criminal and a detective trying to defeat him, the results will not be favorable."

"Did you already tell L?"

"No we are playing a little racing game and…" Raito broke into a devious smirk, "I don't want him to suspect Yagami Raito of anything."

Naomi nodded at this; it was understandable, after all Raito was hiding something of great magnitude.

"Did you know Raye Pender?" Raito asked remembering a picture of Naomi in his wallet, his question seemed to surprise her.

"He was my fiancé."

"You wanted to help with the investigation because of him then?"

"Yes…vengeance, I guess would be the right term."

"Welcome to the smiling side of justice" Raito said and reached out his hand in the western style of shaking hands and Naomi took the hand and shook it lightly.

"Could I, by any chance go see Beyond?"

"Yes but I will give you directions, you must go on your own." After she nodded Raito wrote directions down quickly and began to walk away.

"Good bye Light."

Raito smiled at the English version of his name. It was unfortunate that he would never see her again.

* * *

Surprise awaited Raito when he returned home. The paper kept in Raito's door had fallen to the ground but the lead he kept in the joint of the door and the handle had been disturbed. Someone other than his own family had entered the room.

He walked in and sat in the bed and then walked out and readjusted the paper in the door, after this Raito left to go outside.

Who had come into his room? There was no way anyone had discovered he was Smile and it was too farfetched that someone thought he was Kira. Maybe the explanation was simple, like his sister playing spy or something by replacing the paper in the door.

He doubted this possibility. There was the chance that Kira themselves suspected Raito and had planted cameras, in this case Raito would have to discontinue his actions as Smile for a while or find a way to hide them.

Raito's first stop while he was out was getting some coffee at a local cafe'. He walked into the cafe' that was styled to match a brown and beige color palette and smiled at a waitress that happily came over to get his order.

"I would like a cup of coffee."

"Would you like a hazel, french vanilla, chocolate, mint-"

"Just regular black coffee."

"I'm sorry I don't understand."

"I would like plain black coffee."

"Cream and sugar?"

"Plain black coffee! No cream! No Sugar!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I am sure!"

"Without any sugar it would probably taste better with a flavor..."

Raito lost his temper at this and abruptly left the store without getting any coffee.

While Raito was out he also bought a distasteful magazine displaying women in an erotic manner, this would hide what he was actually hiding. Looking at these pictures once he arrived back home proved to be amusing, it was funny that people paid money to degrade other people in such a way. Raito felt bad that his father would see him doing such a disturbing thing.

Raito headed downstairs for dinner and saw the banner L had sent out, his tactics were humorous so Raito made a comment on how stupid the trick was. Pretending to be grabbing some potato chips to eat after dinner, Raito grabbed a bag that concealed a phone.

He could eat potato chips, text L as Smile and solve equations at the same time.

_Message sent 11:01p.m. Number unknown._

_'How's your investigating going L?'_

* * *

Past the noise that criticized  
It's the best place to be when your feeling like me,  
yeah,  
All these things I hate revolve around me,  
yeah,  
Just back up before I snap

Once more you tell those lies to me,  
Why cant you just be straight up with honesty?  
When you say those things in my ear,  
Why do you always tell me what you wanna hear?  
Oh yeah


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Skillet' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 5

A decision was made as L watched Yagami Raito; whether or not he was Kira he was definitely hiding something. L was relatively sure that the hidden part of Yagami involved Kira somehow; it probably entailed Raito killing thousands of criminals without a change of emotion on the cameras.

Recalling the picture of Raito smiling, L felt worried. If the cunning smile possessed in that picture belonged to Kira and he was able to pull off the façade of innocence his parents saw then there was a high probability that L might actually fail at this case.

L felt his phone give off a cheery vibration, so he glanced down at the screen.

_Message sent 11:01p.m. Number unknown._

_'How's your investigating going L?'_

L smiled. He knew that there was no way he would fail this case, with Smile on his side. All L needed to do now was force Yagami Raito to admit that he was Kira. This would not be an easy task and, L decided, it was a task that he needed to do in person.

* * *

Raito left his home for the To-Oh entrance exam; his mother and sister wished him good luck as he went off. He had meant to be there three minutes before the test started but he knew that he would arrive early, based on his calculations of his walking speed, bus time and the distances between the test taking location and his home.

On the way Raito stood at the side of the side walk and pulled out his phone to text L again, he had not received a response to his last text. Silently wondering who L thought was Kira, Raito accidentally lost focus on the direction he was walking.

A street sign a few feet ahead of him had become right in front of his face as he walked. Smashing his face unintentionally in the sign, Raito was forced to fall into the road.

An expensive black car that appeared to be a limousine of some sort swerved to the side to avoid him.

Raito walked over to make sure everyone in the car was safe, after all it was his fault it swerved. The front window had been automatically forced down to reveal an aging man that Raito recognized from various camera images. This man was Watari, L's proxy!

Raito wondered for a moment if L might be in the car but quickly dismissed the idea, L was far too busy.

"I am so sorry sir" Ratio said in English to Quillsh Wammy, as the displayed name read. The man seemed to blink at the language usage but did not comment and replied in like manner.

"No problem, I am just glad no one was hurt" Watari smiled reassuringly at the boy before he recognized something. This young man was L's suspect! Watari wondered if he should offer a ride since they were headed to the same location. "You're a student? Are you headed to the To-Oh Entrance Exam?"

Raito smiled for a moment and then nodded. "Yes Sir and I must get going or I will be late".

"Would you like a ride?"

"Sorry sir but in Japan that is considered pedophile and is illegal."

Watari blinked and then let out a hearty laugh. "I am sorry Yagami-san, I should have introduced myself. I am not a pervert. I am familiar with your father. My name is Watari."

"How can I be sure of that?"

This time a voice from the backseat answered. "Yagami Ratio…you are son of Yagami Soichiro, superintendant of the NPA. You have a sense of justice that rivals that of your respect for your father. You also aim to become a police official and have helped the police solve several cases in the past. You show great interest in the Kira case."

One of the back doors on the care swung open by being pushed open from the inside and Raito got in. He looked at the man in the backseat for a moment and their eyes meet.

L felt like his heart stopped beating. The aura of intelligence, the flicker of deceit in those brown eyes, and the cunning smile all mixed together with the ideally perfect looking teenaged young man. He readjusted his posture and lifted his thumb up to his mouth before biting softly.

"It is a pleasure to meet you L. Thank you for the ride" Raito said after looking at the name above the head of the man next to him. Silently in his head Raito said, 'and I have yet another ace'. L seemed disturbed, an annoyed anger flashed through the black globes that filled most of his face.

"You're welcome Kira" L said and watched as the uneasy and cunning expression on Raito's face turned into a very amused one. L had made the statement in order to get the same reaction he had given Raito. A look of surprise at the knowledge was all L wanted to see on the boy's face but it did not seem to have worked. It looked as if Raito found this information funny.

"I am your suspect?" Raito's voice poorly concealed the fact that he was about to laugh.

"I do not understand why that is so humorous in your opinion."

"For a moment I thought you actually had found out something."

"Are you insinuating that you have done something wrong Kira?"

"Stop calling me that, it makes me want to burst out in laughter when you say that I'm Kira."

"Murder is not funny."

"Neither are L's."

"You are far more disrespectful then I assumed you would be."

"Does the fact that I am acting out of character raise your suspicions?"

"Yes."

"Good" Raito almost purred the last word as he said it, making L bit his thumb harder. This was not what he had expected when he came to talk to Kira. It was almost like he was losing. L recalled his conversations with Smile; he was the only one that could so easily make him feel challenged.

Watari informed them that they would be arriving soon, so Raito and L finished their 'friendly' conversation in order to head in to take the entrance test.

Raito took the test and got a flawless score but the only thing he thought of was L. At first thought, Raito was sure L had discovered his alias but L had far too incorrect assumptions. In the process of speaking with L, Raito had also discovered L's appearance, name and his Kira suspect.

Considering L's appearance was an odd thing, he looked strange but not in a bad way. The abnormalities seemed so puzzling and detached from how normal people generally are. It made L interesting and far from the 'ugly' that he had described to Smile.

"You there, number 162, sit in your seat properly".

Raito turned and smiled when he saw L sitting in the abnormal way.

L and Raito exchanged a stare. L noticed something. Raito had many smiles; one was happy, one was devious, one was fake, one was cunning, one was evil, one was sympathetic and there were probably many more that L had not yet seen.

Smiles…Smile…and instantly L realized he had met someone that had the intelligence and appearance that would correctly fit Smile. It was not that L actually thought this seventeen year old was Smile, actually the boy was probably Kira but he was the closest physical match to his texting and deducting companion.

Before L realized it, the test was over and Smile, Kira, Raito was gone.

Smiling in an amused way Raito walked home. His little sister greeted him and he joined her in front of the television. The channel was Sakura TV and the news of April 8 was about to begin.

* * *

"L take a look at Sakura TV, something terrible has happened" Watari said as he entered the room that contained L and various police officers on the Kira Task Force.

The news station was announcing something regarding Kira, who had apparently sent them a serious of tapes. The news anchor informed the public that Kira was holding them hostage on the terms that they aired the tapes.

'I am Kira, if this video was aired on April 8 at exactly 5:59p.m. Then change the channel to Taiyo. The news anchor will die at 6'o clock from a heart attack.'

L demanded that another television monitor be brought in. Following this request, he watched as another victim who had condemned Kira died on the NHN station.

"Kira wants to send a message…something terrible will happen if we don't stop the broadcast." L said and the Task Force quickly went to work at trying to alleviate the problem.

'I don't want to kill innocent, I hate evil and love innocent. I consider the police not as an enemy, but an ally.'

The broadcast suddenly stopped. A anime character of a girl with flaming red curly hair and a dark trench coat appeared on the screen and then gave a over exaggerated wave and smile.

'Hello Japan! You might have heard of the infamous L but I introduce to you the one and only…drum roll please. Smile!' The girl's background faded to a curtain that she pulled open to reveal a large blue smiley face.

'Sorry for my delay in suspending the Kira broadcast, it takes a while to edit a preeminence production like this one. L wouldn't know all he does is affix a little L on all of your screens! Anyways this message is a shout out to Kira. I am going to catch you and not only am I going to catch you but I will do it before L gets anywhere close! Well that concludes my interruption of your broadcasts. Bye! Good night! I will be here all week.'

The curtain fell and an animated voice of a guy that sounded unnaturally bloated said 'this has been a Smile production'.

"He is so amazing…" Matsuda said with a voice off awe.

"He just challenged me" L replied angrily. It seemed like L had something else to say when Matsuda grabbed a phone and begin to listen to a message from the caller.

"Ryuuzaki we have received a report that Ukita secured the tapes. He entered the building where the broadcast was taking place while Smile had just begun the broadcast of his own, so all eyes including Kira's were turned away."

"That is commendable; having the right timing might have saved his life. This Kira can most likely kill with only a face."

"What do you mean Ryuuzaki? That means our fake identification cards serve no purpose and you said 'this' Kira are you implying that there are more than one?"

* * *

"You're…"

"Smile."

"One of the world's greatest detectives."

"Yes."

"And you used my anime design on that broadcast?"

"Yes."

"That is so amazing!"

"Thanks Sayu, please don't tell our parents or anyone else. Especially don't tell any strange looking people with awkward sitting habits and scary black eyes."

"Are they Kira?"

"No but your close."

"Brother, why are your cheeks turning red? You don't like that person right? Who are they?!"

Raito did not respond instead he lowered his head and held up his fingers in an L shape. He heard his little sister gasp. "And he thinks I am Kira…"

"What! Why? Who, Smile or yourself?"

"Yagami Raito. Because he noticed that I am hiding something."

"Why don't you tell him you are Smile?"

"That would be like…defeat."

Hearing his phone make a noise, Raito quickly grabbed it to see L's newest text.

* * *

_Message sent 7:07p.m. Number unknown._

_'How did you stop the broadcast?'_

_Message sent 7:14p.m. Number unknown._

_'I hacked the station's satellite signal.'_

_Message sent 7:22p.m. Number unknown._

_'That is brilliant.'_

_Message sent 7:31p.m. Number unknown._

_'That means a lot coming from you. So L, do anything interesting today?'_

_Message sent 7:41p.m. Number unknown._

_'I meet my main Kira suspect and he already knew who I was, it was unnerving.'_

_Message sent 7:52p.m. Number unknown._

_'Well you tell the public who you are already; all he had to deduce was the law part."_

_Message sent 8:00p.m. Number Unknown_

_'How did Smile learn my real name?'_

_Message sent 8:08 p.m. Number Unknown_

_'I might tell you if we ever meet.' _

_Message sent 8:30p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Hi! I am Smile's sibling, I stole his phone. Are you really L?" _

* * *

You try to answer slow  
You put your head down low  
C'mon take your time  
Try to choose the most believable lie

You try to walk away  
And tell me everything's okay  
You think you're are saved by words  
But you're drowning in the absurd


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: Sorry for the rather sketchy chapter. Someone reviewed a question about Beyond, I will write a chapter that holds a flashback about him later...when it becomes more important to the plot. For this chapter remember that in this AU story people with the eyes have no life span. Anyways...enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Rascal Flatts****' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 6

Laughter erupted from Sayu as Raito attempted to grab the cell phone back to no avail. His method was tickling but Sayu seemed to be able to squirm away far too easily.

Grasping the phone, Sayu ran outside of the house and glanced down to see if anymore texts had arrived.

_Message sent 8:35p.m. Number Unknown._

_'The deductive abilities in Smile's family are not hereditary.'_

_Message sent 8:40p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Does that mean yes or no?'_

_Message sent 8:49p.m. Number Unknown._

_'It means you are too incompetent to understand the fact that you already have the answer.'_

_Message sent 8:55p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Fine I was going to tell you who Smile is but if you won't answer me…'_

_Message sent 8:59p.m. Number Unknown._

_'IML'_

_Message sent 9:08p.m. Number Unknown._

_'?'_

_Message sent 9:15p.m. Number Unknown._

_'…do you really need an explanation?' _

_Message sent 9:19p.m. Number Unknown._

_'I don't get what IML…oh…'_

_Message sent 9:22p.m. Number Unknown. _

_'So are you going to tell me who Smile is?'_

_Message sent 9:40p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Cheater'_

_Message sent 9:52p.m. Number Unknown._

_'I believe you were trying to spell 'cheetah' and had a spelling error. Glad you got your phone back. Your sister is not very intelligent.'_

_Message sent 10:01p.m. Number Unknown._

_'How'd you know it was a sister?'_

_Message sent 10:11p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Lucky guess and you confirmed it.'_

_Message sent 10:19p.m. Number Unknown._

_'We need to be careful, pretty soon the lines between the phone signals will break if we keep unintentionally revealing ourselves to each other.'_

_Message sent 10:26p.m. Number Unknown._

_'I still need to know how you discovered my name. Otherwise, I may suspect you of being Kira.'_

_Message sent 10:31p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Fabulist' _

_Message sent 10:34p.m. Number Unknown. _

_'Why?'

* * *

_

"Raito! Why is Sayu locked in the closet?" Wincing at the scream, Raito allowed himself to hide his cell phone in his drawer and then hurry down the stairs to make sure Sayu did not reveal anything.

He was surprised when he descended the stairs to find Sayu telling their father it was a game she was playing with herself to see if she could find a way out. Deciding not to interrupt the scene, Raito turned to return to his 'homework'.

There was a pile of files Beyond had given Raito on occupants of the local buildings; the one local to Smile's building. Raito was glad the cameras had been removed so that he could overlook such things with ease.

Flipping through the files, Raito quickly narrowed the possibilities to three individuals. The only ones that were in the area and would fit the description of a student's schedule were Kagami Taro, Mikami Teru, and Akino Shiori.

After extensive research and a few messages to Beyond, Raito began to grow tired. He fell asleep on the bed with the picture of Akino Shiori still lying on his desk.

"Is this your girlfriend?" Raito's eyes flittered open at the words and he saw Sayu with Akino's picture.

"No" he said and proceeded to prepare for school, ignoring Sayu completely.

"Are you still mad that I was going to tell L who you are?" Raito did not respond. "Why is it such a big deal?" The lack of response made Sayu make an aggravated noise. "Answer me or I'll tell dad that you're Smile!"

Raito actually smiled at this. "You are not going to tell dad, if you were you would have already done so".

"I have too smart of a brother" Sayu said in defeat.

Smirking at this comment, Raito finished his preparations for school. He said goodbye to his sister and went off.

* * *

L had stayed up the whole night. Glancing up at the screen before him, L saw the extent of the night's work. A typed email to Smile was on the computer with over a five hundred variations of the expression 'how do you know my name'.

After a sigh, L sent the email.

The fact that Smile had found this information meant that he had the upper hand, L had lost. L was unable to discover Smile's identity before his was uncovered. There was only one way to make up for this dramatic lose, catching Kira!

When Soichiro Yagami arrived, L decided on a plan of action. "Yagami-san invite Ratio to come help with the investigation".

Although Raito probably had classes during the day, L knew that he would come. Whether he was coming to gain information as Kira or for the chance to stop Kira, L had yet to discover. It was several hours later when he finally arrived.

"Thank you, Yagami-kun."

"Not at all Ryuga, we both want to catch Kira."

"Please call me Ryuuzaki here."

"I'm Matsui."

"I'm Aihara."

"And I'm Asahi."

"I see."

"Would it be alright if I'm Asahi Light?"

"Please do. I will call you Light here."

"Now to business. Take a look at our current information on Kira. I also want you to examine this video which was sent to the television station but never released to the public."

After the discussion L asked for Raito or Light, to watch the video. If Light reasoned things through as there being two Kira's it would be quite possible for him to conclude that there was a lower possibility of Kira being Raito.

"Light, what so you think? Did you get something from it?"

"This Kira is partial. L, L, L…aren't there other detectives on the case? Like Smile, he's not even mentioned!"

"This Kira? What do you mean?"

"Does it matter? You already know why I said that so it would be pointless to explain. This test to prove I am Kira is foolish; I would be able to easily pass it even if your suspicion was correct."

The detectives in the room seemed unsettled by Raito's statement. L, however, was unfazed and continued on with his plan. "I think it would be wise to respond with a message back as the original Kira, in order to stop the second Kira. In the broadcast, I want you to play the part of Kira."

L waited for Raito's response and then waited once again for Raito to write the response. What he wrote sounded very convincing, although L was slightly unhappy about the request for his death. Under other circumstances L would ask Raito about this but he was still having his mind sidetracked by the fact that Smile knew his name.

It was several days later when the reply came through.

Raito gasped at what the second Kira said. 'Eyes', it couldn't mean…no there was no way Kira had the ability that himself and Beyond had. He knew he had to find this Kira quickly; they could become very dangerous if what Raito thought was true.

Looking towards the ground that L had overdramatically fallen to, Raito smiled.

"Melodramatic much?" The comment seemed to upset L and everyone else in the room, all of whom glared at him with a bit of anger. Raito remembered he was supposed to be in character as the serious 'Yagami Raito' not the lax detective 'Smile'.

"I would appreciate it if Light-kun took this information seriously" L said from the ground.

"May I be excused so that I can laugh hysterically?" Raito retorted.

L seemed to be searching the room for what was funny and then came to the realization that he was on the floor. To attempt to force this fact out of his mind, L asked Watari if anymore videos had been received.

With a look of determination L and Raito waited for a response.

"No but there was a diary page."

The two geniuses awaited the arrival of this page. L pointed out an event on the calendar of events but Raito thought this was most likely a cover for what was really to occur. His eyes scanned to a location, Aoyama on May 22nd. Raito knew he was going to be there, regardless of how L responded.

L seemed to notice this as well and pointed out that they should place surveillance at that location and the other one mentioned. Matsui idiotically added that he could go and fit in well.

"I could go as well." Raito said and justified this with an excuse as lame as Matsui's.

* * *

Raito was disappointed by the lack of response at the supposed Kira meeting place. He begin to think of possibilities of different things but was interrupted.

Sayu was knocking on the door of Raito's bedroom saying that there was someone from the university that had a notebook of his. The deductive part of Raito's mind calculated the chance that this person was the second Kira, it all made sense. The person would 'exchange a notebook with a friend'.

Hurrying to the door, Raito had to abruptly stop in his tracks. There was a blonde girl standing in the door way a blonde girl with no time of death. Raito walked outside next to the girl and closed the door.

"Pleased to meet you my name is Misa-"the girl stopped speaking as if she was listening to something and then abruptly handed Raito a notebook. Some type of white monster floated behind the girl. Raito mind registered that this thing was a Japanese God of Death.

"Misa allow me to talk to him for a moment alone, it is important" the white thing said in a voice that sounded somehow feminine. The blonde girl immediately started to leave. Once she was out of ear shot the strange being told Raito.

"She thinks you are Kira, keep her safe and make you believe you are Kira or I will kill you and your family."

* * *

What hurts the most  
Was being so close  
And having so much to say  
And watching you walk away  
And never knowing  
What could have been  
And not seeing that loving you  
Is what I was tryin' to do


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: Thanks everyone that reviewed! Reviews are so uplifting!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the English version Death Note Introduction**** Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 7

Raito did not even register the words that the being said. This…thing was not human. A thing that was not human was talking. The thing that was not human had something to do with Kira. Kira referred to shinigami in messages. This thing was one. This thing was a shinigami. That was improbable! No…it was not improbable, it was impossible! Then again, people being killed from a distance by way of natural heart attacks used to also be impossible.

"Huh?" The expression of his thoughts came out as the simple English expression.

"Yagami Ratio you are not stupid, if you intend to make such a jest of yourself by acting as such it is not working".

"You're serious?"

"Misa will come under no harm, do you understand me?"

"No" Raito said in a timid voice that was out of character whether he was playing as Raito or as Smile.

"What?"

"I said 'no', do you need it spelled out in a more elaborate answer?"

"You realize you will die?"

"Yes, I accept that but I do not accept protecting Kira and pretending to be such."

"You are a fool, a heartless fool. Do you want to see your family die? Your little sister?"

Raito recognized that the shinigami did not mention Beyond, the thing did not know Raito was Smile. That was one advantage, although it may prove to be a small advantage.

"I will do it. I'll protect a murder, a psychopath, an idiotic girl. But she must give up her weapon to me."

"Deal Yagami Raito."

Clanking shoes made their way back to the shinigami and Raito. Misa smiled at the two happily and Misa returned.

"Raito!" Raito flinched at the loud noise of the girl's voice. This situation was…bad.

The girl and Raito made their way to his bedroom where she gave up her 'death note'. 'Death Note' was Kira's weapon and it had many rules but Raito had to force himself not to look at them or risk looking like he was not already familiar with them.

Watching the girl rattle on about her love for him, Raito attempted to make a plan. Preppy blonde model girl was getting in his way of catching Kira and she was herself a Kira. She could not be captured or arrested without the shinigami killing Raito and his family. Raito decided to play along with the shinigami's idea for now and hope an idea would come soon.

Raito's mother interrupted the talking girl, resulting in the girl's much anticipated departure. Sayu later ran into Raito's room.

"Who is she? Who is she?" Sayu asked in a cheery voice.

"Kira" Raito then watched as her sister stared at him in shock and fear.

"Then…why?"

"She thinks I am Kira."

"But…if she's Kira-"

"There's more than one."

"So, if she finds out the truth?"

"We'll all die."

"I am going to bed" Sayu said obviously being way in over her head. Raito understood, even he himself was confused.

Why had Raito revealed all this information to his innocent little sister? Well he obviously thought he was dreaming. Every teenage boy had dreams about mass-murders with god complexes, one of whom happens to be a blonde model that is deeply in love with them, right?

Even in dreams Raito had never seen things so insane. A book that killed people? Raito would not even read about such a thing in a novel, let alone believe such a thing in real life.

"Wake up idiot!" Raito aggressively hit his head into his desk. "I'm Smile, one of the smartest people and most famous detectives in the world, I cannot let a foolish dream get to me this way".

Maybe, just maybe, this was all real. Raito needed to come up with an idea quickly. He could fake being Kira, force Misa to give up Kira-worship, capture the real Kira and hope the second Kira fell into the shadows of the past but that may never work.

Raito wondered what he could do. While Raito was thinking, he had flicked his computer on and to an online cake shop. The site had a rounded cake with a large smiley face on it and an old text message echoed in his mind, 'I like cake'. He sent a request for a cake from Smile to be sent to the hotel the Kira Task Force was currently working at. As he did this so a thought occurred to him.

What about L? L would eventually draw a conclusion about Misa and Kira. The blonde idiot probably did not cover her tracks. What was he suppose to do? The thought of lying to the insomniac detective once again made Raito's heart construct.

Raito had never felt so confused in a long time. At last, he turned to something that always made him happy, L.

_Message sent 11:45a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You sent me a cake.'_

_Message sent 11:48a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You like it?'_

_Message sent 11:51a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Yes, what do you want?'_

_Message sent 12:05a.m. Number Unknown._

_'L have you ever thought you were dreaming but couldn't wake up.'_

_Message sent 12:14a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Smile should try not sleeping so much, I don't sleep nearly enough to have such things happen to me.'_

_Message sent 12:18a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Thanks, that was helpful (the proceeding statement was sarcasm)'_

_Message sent 12:23a.m. Number Unknown. _

_'Are you referring to the Kira Case as the dream?'_

_Message sent 12:28a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Sure let's go with that.'_

_Message sent 12:31a.m. Number Unknown._

_'If you're dreaming then you wouldn't mind telling me how you know my name.'_

_Message sent 12:45a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Sure, why not? It will only confirm to you that I am dreaming. I know your name because I saw your face, and above peoples' heads I see their names and the day they die.'_

_Message sent 1:11a.m. Number Unknown. _

_'Yes it does seem you are imagining things. So this texting, you believe, it part of your dream as well.'_

_Message sent 1:17 a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Yes, that is my theory.'_

_Message sent 1:23a.m. Number Unknown._

_'In that case I will tell you a secret.'_

_Message sent 1:25a.m. Number Unknown._

_'?'_

_Message sent 1:28a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Smile-kun is my first friend and I want to know how he looks so badly that I fantasize that he looks like a particularly attractive Kira suspect.'_

_Message sent 1:36a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Who…?'_

_Message sent 1:41a.m. Number Unknown. _

_'I only have one main suspect.' _

_Message sent 1:45a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Thanks for confirming that I am dreaming.'_

_Message sent 1:49a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Why don't you tell me who you are so I can really confirm that you are dreaming?'_

_Message sent 1:51a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Sure, you really want to know?'_

_Message sent 1:58a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Tell me.'_

A message was received on L's phone three minutes later.

.

.

.

_'Nice try L.'_

L actually smiled at this, allowing the sides of his lips to raise his cheeks slowly. Thinking about the conversation of texts, L wondered if there was something really wrong with Smile.

He had told L that he felt like he was dreaming, what happened? It seemed to have affected him quite a bit.

Considering this possibility made L uneasy, what if Smile wanted his comfort and all he got was interrogation. L did not know how to treat a friend and he did not want to lose his friendship with Smile. He wondered if he should have left the stalker-like comment about imagining Smile as Raito.

Raito-that was definitely something to think about. The boy was Kira, L had already decided this was the best way to reason on the matter, but also was the only face he could not read. Raito's eyes always held such energy and emotion but it was impossible to tell what emotion was being displayed.

Basing his deductions after the expressions on Raito's face did not help either, his masks were flawless. Even though L knew the boy was putting on a façade, he could not help but smile a little inside every time he saw Raito smile.

L smiled to himself, his thoughts were funny. It was almost as if he was arguing whether he liked Smile or Raito better, there was no need for that. There was no problem with having more than one friend, but maybe that was L's problem. A slight possibility existed that L wanted neither of them as 'friends'.

Glancing down at the cake, L wondered why Smile sent the thing. The fresh white frosting seemed fluffy against the hidden mix of chocolate and vanilla cake. Smiling up at him, there existed a blue decorative smiley face.

L took the cake, which was only a round cake with a four inch diameter, and held it up to his mouth. He ran his tongue along the smile, licking up the blue frosting present there. He wondered if Smile tasted as sweet.

There were a few files L had about other potential Kira suspects. Glancing through them, L paid little attention although he noted someone by the name of Mikami Teru. It didn't matter much, Raito was Kira and L was almost never wrong.

Matsuda decided to walk in on L's thoughts with his annoying stupidity.

"Good morning Ryuuzaki! I brought donuts for you."

"Thank you."

"Am I still going with Light to investigate the second location that was put on the diary, even though you said the Kiras probably already met?"

"I was not planning on it, there would be no problem with it though."

"Great! I'll tell him once he comes."

Matsuda ran off to do something, L wondered what the man actually ever did, so L returned to his thoughts gearing towards the upcoming outing.

"Matsuda-san, I will be going as well." Matsuda and the other detectives that had since arrived glanced at L in surprise.

"You are going in person to a shopping district to investigate Kira?" Ukita asked.

"Yes."

Matsuda explained that he and Light were planning on leaving as soon as Light got there, L nodded to this. Matsuda then called Light to tell him the details.

* * *

"Hello" Raito said as he entered. "Ready to go Matsuda?"

"Yes, just waiting for L he is having difficulties with his shoes."

"You didn't help?" Matsuda seemed flustered, Raito sympathized, the thought of L's feet being near you was frightening. "I will go check on him."

Raito found L in a closet with a pair of tennis shoes. The shoes had no laces in the laces and somehow L had managed to tie part of the laces to the shoe toe and the other part to his ankle in an attempt to tie his shoes.

Staring at the sight, Raito burst into laughter.

"Need some help?"

"Raito-kun your enjoyment of this moment adds percentile to the chance you are Kira."

"Of course it does Ryuuzaki" Raito said as he sit beside L and slipped on the right shoe on the right foot and the left on the left. Then he put the laces through the holes and tied two double knotted ties. At last he looked up to Ryuuzaki with a smile on his face.

"Smile" the detective whispered and Raito seemed startled.

"What?"

"Nothing. You just have a startling smile."

The three then traveled to their destination.

* * *

I can't let anyone interfere  
Someday, I will show you  
A sky shining with light  
Why? Am I a broken Messiah?  
It's a "paradise" everyone's dreamed of  
In the spreading darkness I exchange a pledge for the revolution  
An evil flower that sprouted from love  
With everything that'll happen after this  
I can't let anyone interfere  
Someday, I will show you  
A world shining with light


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note: Sorry for later update then usual...I had a report to write for Literature class, took up all my time :P  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the '30 Seconds to Mars' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 8

_Dear diary,_

_I started writing this diary in case I ever lose my memories of being Kira and need to remind myself without regaining possession of the Death Note. Today was exceptionally vital in my work as the new god of this contaminated world._

_I attempted to meet the second Kira, who was never found at the first location they listed. It did not make sense to me that this occurred but it may be possible the shopping district was the original meeting choice for the fake Kira._

_At 12:00p.m. I arrived and walked around aimlessly for over two hours. Not to compose this to seem like a journal of a young schoolgirl, but, then I met a guy. He looked so perfect that out of the two of us I thought he would be Kira rather than I. _

_I approached him and the two friends he was with; after all, I doubted the fake Kira was present._

_When I greeted him he seemed to be staring at my face with astonishment. Was I unsightly? I doubted that, compared to his older and far stranger looking friends. A thought occurred to me; didn't Ryuk say that someone with the eyes, like second Kira, would be able to perceive that I don't have a life span under my name?_

_This person might, just might be the fake Kira. This thought trilled me, the idea of being worshiped and followed by someone so godlike. Thinking of the brunette that I was speaking to as helping me eradicate the grime of the world made me smile, which was something I didn't do often._

_Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed his hunched friend glaring at me. This disturbed me greatly; it was almost like all three were examining me for some sort of vital information. I decided to provide them with my name and they returned the favor but I could tell theirs' were aliases. Why would they give such? I would soon find out._

_After walking for another half hour, I noticed that the two friends of the brunette were by themselves, had the he slipped away?_

_Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me. If I was not a god I would have jumped or felt panic._

_"Mikami Teru", said the voice in a cheery manner that sent shivers down my spine, "or should I say Kira."_

_Before I could respond he started to speak again._

_"I have no proof but I will find it" the voice said. Before I could respond a hand reached over my eyes and then, once I was blinded by the hand, speaker shoved a hand against my chest. I was pushed back wards and I fell into a bush that had been used to decorate the inside of the shopping area._

_The perpetrator had left by the time I got off and left only one reminder of their presence. On my shirt was a huge smiley face sticker. At first I thought it was a joke but realized this was not. Smile, the detective Smile, had placed the sticker and knew of my existence as Kira._

_After these occurrences, I returned home and wrote several names in the Death Note._

_ DELETE XOXO

* * *

_

Raito laughed as he found that L and Matsuda were hysterically searching for him. It had been fun to watch the terror in Kira's face when he knew he had been caught! Raito needed to call Beyond soon and tell him to arrest Mikami.

"Light-kun!" Matsuda cried out when Raito came into vision and L, just glanced over and calculated Kira percentiles.

"Light-kun the fact that you were gone to the bathroom for such a long expanse of time shows that you may have been the first Kira and contacted the second Kira", Raito said in a mocking way. He was holding his tongue against the roof of his mouth so that the words came out in a squeaky accented way. A sputter of illumination flashed through L's eyes, was he aggravated?

"It only raises your Kira percent when you mock me" L said.

"But don't you think I make a delightful mocking bird?"

"You just lowered the percentage."

"I would have never guessed" Raito said sardonically.

"You don't have to make conjectures, I just told you."

"That was sarcasm."

"Sorry I am relatively new to speaking the Japanese language so it is hard to understand sarcasm in the language."

"That's not-" Raito stopped himself and cursed mentally. He was about to say, 'you told me you learned it when you were ten, so you've know it fifteen years' but that would have given away his identity. "That's not a valid reason".

"What ever you want to think Light-kun."

Letting a smile form on his face, Raito walked over to a booth that held souvenirs for those visiting the area to 'Kira watch'. People from many nations had heard of the supernatural killings and headed over in an attempt to catch the murderer themselves.

The items at the booth amused Raito. There was a giant plushy version of a smile, a letter L, and a throne like plushy that said 'Kira'. Other items included candies, shirts, postcards, and personal copies of the broadcasts between Smile, L and Kira. Raito laughed as something caught his attention, a fan girl lollipop for Smile.

The lollipop was blue and had the words written on the back in English, 'I love Smile'. Raito bought it and turned to see Matsuda and L eyeing other items in the booth. "L I bought you this lollipop. I am not familiar with the English word between Smile and I but I was sure you would like the sugar."

Quickly turning away from Raito, L tried to hide his face. He could not show emotions in front of Kira but he felt like laughing at the situation. The person that he fantasized as being Smile was handing him a candy for his fantasy-self. L was sure that Raito knew what the word love in English was, just as Raito knew that L knew Japanese well.

L was exasperated, irritated at the situation. He anticipated this situation as a chance to get the pseudonym at the other side of his texts out of his mind and a chance to make Raito confess to being Kira but it was not effective.

By watching Raito's actions all that L could conclude was that the boy was disrespectful and seemed way too learned at making L act out of character. Around the teen, L actually felt rage and amusement which otherwise would have been hidden from those that saw him.

Every time Raito spoke, it seemed to L, he acted like Smile. It was unnerving and somehow comforting to speak to him. Hearing the way he spoke with such intelligence was better than the felling L got when he ate sweets.

* * *

Their trip to the shopping district was over and so was the investigation for the day, blackness had already overtook the sky's gentle blue.

Saying goodbye to L, Raito felt amused. The detective was so annoyed by his presence and looked at him with these loathsome eyes that spoke right out to Raito, 'you are Kira'. Raito wondered what L would think about the truth.

The only problem was not matter how much Raito did or did not want to tell L the truth, he could not. If L learned the truth he would learn everything including the facts about Misa. L would simultaneously conclude that Misa was the second Kira and Raito would be killed, with his family.

Raito was walking outside, going to the office building that held Beyond. He planned on telling him in person the plan to arrest Kira for the time being. Also, Raito needed to inform Beyond on the situation between Raito and the shinigami.

Raito's thoughts were cut short by the sudden presence of a blonde monster that had jumped onto his back in a strange form of a hug. This was not good, Misa could not find out who about Beyond.

"I was coming to see you at your house, why are you heading the opposite direction?"

"I am not heading the opposite direction, Misa" Raito noticed that a shadow moved in the distance. L had someone following him, wasn't that great?

"Misa Misa wanted to see her boyfriend so much" this comment made Raito grimace. This stupid girl needed to be in jail, on the way to capital punishment-preferably torture first.

"Misa you can't come see me, I am being followed by the police. Can you give me your number?"

"Finally, give me yours too."

"I can't."

"What! Why?"

"I am being followed by the police it is easy for them to listen to phone calls."

"In that case, you can have one of Misa Misa's phones."

Raito accepted this offer and after a brief conversation tried to make Misa leave. The girl would not go, she wanted to go with him. In a sudden decision, Ratio kissed the blonde and immediately wanted to vomit.

Her lips tasted appalling, her face up close was just hideous. He had kissed a murder, who had the taste of all those she killed on her lips. A murder that had all those peoples blood in her saliva and their tears in her drool. The face of the girl had the faces of terror as heart attacks took the victims lives.

Raito left soon after, hoping that L would be open for texting once he returned home.

* * *

_Message sent 8:45p.m. Number Unknown._

_'I hate you.'_

_Message sent 9:00p.m. Number Unknown._

_'You seem in a bad mood L.'_

_Message sent 9:12p.m. Number Unknown._

_'It's your fault. You were at the shopping district'_

_Message sent 9:46p.m. Number Unknown._

_'You got camera images of a hooded man messing with a Kira suspect?'_

_Message sent 10:00p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Yes. Smile should be more careful.'_

_Message sent 10:13p.m. Number Unknown._

_'A world without Kira is worth risks.'_

_Message sent 10:26p. Number Unknown._

_'Yes but a world without you is meaningless'_

_Message sent 10:45p.m. Number Unknown._

_'You have a sappy side to you.'_

_Message sent 10:56p.m. Number Unknown._

_'You seem happy today.'_

_Message sent 11:23p.m. Number Unknown._

_'I saw video footage of you licking a lollipop that said 'I love Smile', on it.'_

_Message sent 11:45p.m. Number Unknown._

_'Smile tastes good.'_

_Message sent 11:58p.m. Number Unknown._

_'You eat smiles? You eat happiness? You're such a sadistic detective.'_

_Message sent 12:34a.m. Number Unknown._

_'…Smile did you know L hates apples'_

_Message sent 12:43a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You couldn't think of a way to respond? :)'_

_Message sent 1:01a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Doesn't Smile sleep at this time?'_

_Message sent 1:13a.m. Number Unknown._

_'EW STALKER!!!......goodnight L. :)'_

* * *

It's time to forget about the past  
To wash away what happened last  
Hide behind an empty face  
Don't ask too much the same  
'Cause this is just a game

It's a beautiful lie  
It's a perfect denial  
Such a beautiful lie to believe in  
So beautiful, beautiful lie makes me  
Lie, beautiful, oh


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: Thanks for reviews, I love reading your reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Bon Jovi' Lyrics at the end. Enjoy!**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 9

Beyond heard his phone sing out the tone that only played when Raito called. Why was he calling, he almost never called directly and if he did it was not from his actual phone? It had to be an emergency or something important that he needed to say without coming over to the building. Without hesitation, Beyond grabbed the phone and said a greeting.

"Beyond I think I know what L is planning."

"What do you mean?"

"I think he has evidence or might have evidence. Once it is linked to Misa there may be serious problems."

"No the serious problem is that you didn't bring me any jam in the last week."

"BB…"

"What?"

"I don't want the shinigami to hurt my family, you, L or myself. In order to make sure that happens I need your help."

"Do I get to kill anyone?"

"If I say yes would you agree?"

"Yes"

"Fine, you get to kill Kira once we prove it is Mikami."

"So you found Kira."

"Yes. I want you to arrest him, pretend to me to both him and L."

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to text L, as Smile, for the next few months."

"You're going to have him arrest you, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You're a fool…just kill the girl."

"I'll die too you know."

"Well…"

"You want me to die?"

"No! It is just an idea."

"I am one of the only life spans you cannot see but I still have a life."

"You're an idiot."

"That's what you told me the first time I met you."

"And you were an idiot then, saving a murder that you do not know from the law."

"The law does not take everything into consideration sometimes; in fact if I had not become Smile then I probably would have been so fed up with the law system that I would have become Kira."

"Blasphemy!"

"Thanks Beyond."

"Bring jam or next time I won't answer your call."

"Strawberry?"

"Always."

"Bye Beyond, I hope I see you again."

"Don't kill yourself."

"I'll think about it."

Beyond had a sadistic smile plastered on his face and was thinking of poetic ideas of how to scare Kira out of his god complex so that he will be a weak human when he dies. Knowing Smile/Raito, it was unlikely that he would actually get to kill Mikami and Beyond held little want to do such things anymore. Now Beyond knew he had a life where he could be better than L without becoming a serial killer, so he did not wish to kill as much as he had in the past.

It was still hard to look at people with dwindling life spans and not think up puzzling ideas for their demise but Beyond could resist. It helped to carry out tasks as Smile's proxy, no matter how belittling the job was.

Going to arrest Kira was one of the more interesting things he got to do recently.

* * *

L saw Raito talking to someone on the phone as he walked through the campus of the school. Waiting for the Raito to notice his presence, L attempted to read his lips and understand what he was saying.

'Became Kira…thanks…I hope I…about it'. L's eyes widened at the implication of these words and his mind silently filled in the gaps. His version of the conversation was:

_"I became Kira for you."_

_"Don't worry Raito I'll kill L."_

_"I hope I see him die."_

_"After he dies will you mount his skull on you throne of godliness?"_

_"I'll think about it."_

L grimaced. It was sad to think of the beautiful boy, that he at one time imagined as Smile, was Kira. He hoped he was wrong about Raito. Raito was his first friend that he had actually seen the face of. Smile seemed physically distant at times.

Ending the phone call, Raito walked over to the bench L was sitting on and promptly asked what the detective was doing in public. L responded that only Raito would know who he is but that was not true the second Kira would be able to see the name 'L'.

As if the little devil knew Raito was thinking of her, Misa appeared. The foolish girl introduced herself as Raito's girlfriend.

"Raito, I'm jealous." L cursed himself mentally; he had to come up with a lie quickly to rid himself of this statement. L added a justifier that made it seem as if he was talking about Misa rather than Raito. When L said Misa's name, a whole crowd of people swarmed around them.

L decided that grabbing Misa's phone would prove useful in the future, so he grabbed it under the guise that he was touching her butt.

When the manager came to take Misa away, L was relieved. The crowd of people around him was troublesome. Raito then told him that he had to go to the bathroom, the lewd liar.

As the two began to walk away from each other Raito slipped out one of his phones and clicked call without thinking about the matter. Suddenly, ringing sounded behind him. This made him realize two things: L had stolen Misa's phone and Raito had accidentally taken Misa's phone out instead of his own to call Beyond. If he tried to call Beyond now L would notice, stupid L.

The detective stupidly answered the phone to speak to a particularly anger Raito. He smiled at this, L was winning this war against Kira or so he thought.

Raito would have got the phone back from L or said something to him but he was far too annoyed. He walked over to L with a sadistic smile plastered on his face, which seemed to send a bit of surprise through the emotionless black eyes' of the detective. Before L could say anything Raito grabbed hold of him and gave him a hug.

No words were exchanged between the world's two greatest detectives and L could only stare in surprise as the satisfied Raito walked away with a cunning smile on his perfect face.

After the encounter, L called Watari and was picked up and brought to the hotel. He was completely oblivious to the snickers that followed him as he went. There was nothing that would lead L to discover exactly what the genius had accomplished to undermine the other genius in a way of complete and total trickery.

Surprisingly, the person that finally pointed out the trickery that had been bestowed upon L was Matsuda.

"L did you know-"

"Yes if it something you discovered I probably already knew it."

"But…"

"What is it Matsuda?"

"There's a sticky note on your back."

L's eyes widened in realization and he tried unsuccessfully to grasp the sticky. "Matsuda can you please assist me in removing it."

"No."

"What?"

"The sticky specifies that whoever removes the sticky had to kiss you."

That was it, whether or not Raito was Kira, L was going to kill him. Gradually kill him so that he could endure the most pain possible before he died! The senseless idiot! Who was imprudent enough to do the 'sticky note' pranks anymore?

Another task member came in and informed L that Misa had been apprehended for charges of being the second Kira. L smiled at this news, it seemed that there were still some cards that L held that Smile and Raito had not yet taken from him.

Smile and Raito…which one did he hate more than the other? Which one did he like more than the other? Although they seemed to be so separate, their personalities and attitudes were so similar. They could both disturb L more than anyone else managed to do.

L called Raito to come to the hotel that the Task Force was situated at. There were two reasons for this; he wanted to tell Raito in person about Misa and he wanted Raito to remove the sticky note since no one else would because of the message.

It only took a few minutes for Raito to arrive after the call was made and he seemed overjoyed at being there. L wanted to get rid of the smile that always seemed to find its way onto the boy's face. The stupid smile, the stupid smile that made him feel too many emotions. The stupid smile that acted too much like Smile.

"Misa has been arrested for charges of being the second Kira." And as predicted the smile vanished, victory!

"Is there a reason you are informing me of this development?"

"You are Kira and before I arrest you I want you to remove the filth you left on my back."

"You're right."

"What?"

"I think I might be Kira."

"Oh, I thought you meant you were going to comply and remove the note you left for other's viewing."

"No I am not that stupid."

"Raito-kun makes no sense, he admits to being Kira but he thinks he is not stupid."

"I said I think 'I might' be Kira."

L doubted this story but did not understand what the teen was trying to do. It almost seemed like he wanted to get arrested.

Was this attempt to prove his innocence? Probably so, otherwise such a thing would be pointless. Possibly he could just want to be going through the same situation as the girl he loved.

It was odd that Raito would be protecting the stupid girl, even if she was the second Kira. This was probably because of the second Kira's ability to kill with only a face.

* * *

Its my life  
And its now or never  
I aint gonna live forever  
I just want to live while Im alive  
(its my life)  
My heart is like an open highway  
Like frankie said  
I did it my way  
I just want to live while Im alive  
cause its my life


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: Thanks all the amazing people that reviewed!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Three Days Grace' lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 10

Filling the air with forbidding air of silence, the lonesome intern stared at the ceiling of the building. The intern's black hair was sprayed over the edge of the seat he was sitting and he was lightly humming a song. It was something he had written about himself in an attempt to create a theme song 'Kira Oh Kira Oh God Oh Kira Oh God Kira'. It was not very creative.

Mikami looked at the shinigami that hovered over the desk in front of him. It was quite odd that the death god had not asked for his stupid apples again. Ryuk seemed to be amused by something else, maybe the date of death of someone outside? It was hard to discern such things from the shinigami's way of behaving.

Darkness was slipping through the building and now everything seemed fearfully dreary. As if speaking the warning to the lone man that had began to write names in a killing book, the trees thrashed the windows of the building without seeking any particular gain from their actions.

Suddenly, a crash sounded. Something had been propelled through the window and hit the wall beside where Mikami was sitting. It sounded like glass shattering, maybe a bowl or container.

The air was tainted by a sweet smell. What was it? Maybe a type of jam, strawberry jams?

Mikami deduced that the crash had been a strawberry jam container thrown at the building. The only remaining question was the reasoning behind such an action on the part of the thrower.

There was one thing that Mikami felt was right about the situation, yet far he felt no fear. He was god of this world, why would he have any reason to fear strawberry jam. Mikami walked closer to inspect the area of collision.

Falling with all its might, a plop of jam fell into Mikami's hair. Doing what any rational person would do in such a situation, Mikami let out a girlish scream and began to swat at the substance. He then ran over to his desk and grabbed a black notebook and pen.

Pen met paper and the words Strawberry Jam were written repeatedly. It was pointless, the jam was not human and could not die but whoever had done it could!

Mikami walked out on his balcony of the law office to look for the person who had caused his utter misery.

On the balcony Mikami's eyes were drawn by two red spheres that almost seemed to glow in the evening's darkness.

"Hello Kira" the dark being that possessed the eyes said.

The sense of fear that the dark shape instilled in him made him consider the possibility that it was a shinigami but he had not touched any Death Notes other than his own. "Who are you?" He managed to say in a very ungodly, drawn out way.

Looking out towards the night sky, the figure seemed to find something funny but did not reply to the question. "He said I could not throw jam at the buildings. I didn't, I threw it at Kira and was off a bit. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Who are you?" Mikami repeated, enunciating each word.

Finally, the dark figure had the decency to respond, "Your worst nightmare".

Mikami felt something hit into his neck before he could even realize the figure had moved. After the shift action, Mikami's body fell limb and passed out on the balcony.

"Handcuffs are overrated" Beyond said in a dismissing manner, as if the body could hear him speaking.

* * *

Misa was scared, fearful of what was occurring. She was strapped to some sort of mechanism and her eyes were covered.

Blonde hair lay over her face and she wished, in vain, that her Raito would rescue her from these evil people. She wanted to be rescued by Kira and watch as these people that had captured her were brought to justice by the edge of Kira's pen.

Rem seemed to be near her, asking her something. Misa could not seem to focus on what was being said.

"Kira has formulated a plan for us to abide by for ensured safety. He has taken your Death Note and left it in a public place so that someone will find it and continue Kira's work. In the mean time, Raito will have himself arrested along with you. At the point when Kira deaths begin again, you two will both forfeit your memories of the death notes. The death note placed in public will contain evidence that proves you both innocent…"

Misa knew she should be paying attention to what the plan was but her mind stopped at the words 'Kira…ensured safety'. It did not matter what befell her as long as Kira would be there to help her get through the times she had to face.

"Rem, can I give up Death Note ownership now? Raito will probably be happy with that."

"Be careful Misa."

At that moment, Misa's eyes widened out significantly and her entire demeanor changed. She was confused about why she had been taken here and what wrong doings she had committed. These people were probably some type of obsessed fan group or perverts that enjoyed Misa's magazine images. Misa voiced this opinion, hoping cameras somewhere would pick up the evidence of her scared aggravation.

Why would anyone do something like this to her? She was an innocent girl that had never done anything wrong, right?

There were gaps in her memory but Misa did not dwell on this thought, in fact she was attempting to not dwell on any thoughts. Maybe attempting was not the right word but rather she was acting at her average mental capacity which meant she could not dwell on thought.

"Raito save me!" Misa began to cry out.

Raito, she loved him so much. It had been love at first sight but she could barely remember the day that they met. All she could recall is the absolute love that she felt for him and the knowledge that Raito had kissed her! That day stuck in her memory so vividly. The feeling of his lips against hers and the false hope that she was the only one that would get to experience that feeling made her remember.

Planning a way to get out, Misa continued to complain about the perverse state of her captors. Maybe, she thought if she complained enough they would let her go free without any hesitation. This plan was highly unlikely to work but she had attempt escape in order to be made free.

A speaker noise came on in the cell that Misa was situated in. Were they finally going to let her free? She hoped that they did so.

"Misa please remain silent, you will be question once he returns."

Who was this 'he'? It was probably the person that was leading the group of insanists that had forced her into this demeaning situation.

* * *

L doubted the reasoning of Raito that he was subconsciously being Kira. That was improbable, if not impossible. Besides, the Kira L had been dealing with had a certain extent of individual intellect besides just control over a physical body and the ability to kill.

"Raito-kun, if you do not remove the object, I will arrest you for three years, with or without reason".

"Fine L." Raito seemed amused again, what was he planning on doing this time.

The press of Raito's hand as the sticky not e was pulled off made L uneasy but it quickly ended. Then something unexpected occurred, L's chair was spun around to face Raito and he was leaning towards L.

Raito's lips touched lightly on L's forehead. He had earned a look of utter shock from the black-haired detective. This was proving to be amusing, a memory he could refer to when he was bored during his eventual confinement.

Shortly after the kiss, L called to Watari and explained the fact that Raito had confessed to being Kira. Watari seemed surprised by the news but was obedient in detaining the brunette teen.

There was going to be a long expanse of time in which Raito seemed to be free to do as he pleased first so he sent a quick text to his sister on his Smile phone.

"I need all the belongings on your person" Watari said.

Shock passed over Ratio's face and contorted it. He should have expected this, he should have planned for this possibility but he was too caught up in his own stupidity to remember that he had his Smile phone on his person.

All the mental cursing finally formulated actual words in Raito's mouth but Watari did not seem to notice what Raito was whispering about. Watari would find out soon and all Raito could hope is that he would not tell L about the development.

By the time Raito was finally brought to the cell that he was going to be required to stay in, he knew Watari had discovered exactly whose phone Raito had.

The old man's eyes seemed to examine him in a confused manner, looking for something that may have been missed. Raito smiled at him in a way that usually calmed people but it seemed to be doing quite the opposite to Watari.

"You're really him?"

"No, I got the phone of person who has never showed their face before just to mess with you", Raito confirmed in a sarcastic line of speech.

"Why are you doing this then? Why did you tell L that you're-"

"I can't tell you, if I could entrust such information I would not be in this situation."

"I just want to make sure this is not another game between you two. I know that Smile never did like to lose but it's not worth pretending to be Kira for."

"Please don't tell L".

Watari did not reply but Raito was sure the old man would comply with the request. Although Watari was loyal to L, he seemed to also have developed a caring nature towards anyone that L cared about, including Smile and Raito.

* * *

Three hours passed and Raito had been detained in a cell. It was annoying, he felt like screaming already. The Smile part of him silently promised to make sure criminals he locked up had a book or something. Thinking of a way to entertain himself, Raito attempted trying to force several fingers inside of the cuffs. In all honesty, he knew this was not a good idea but did so anyways.

Yelping slightly in pain, Raito finally got the abused fingers out. It probably would have been a better idea to just sing a song or try to talk to the detectives that he knew were watching from a camera somewhere around.

He wondered where the shinigami had gone; it was most likely with Misa. Raito was glad for this, it meant that Rem would not discover the identity that Watari found.

Raito did not feel like signing out loud but began to hum after a few more hours of confinement. Humming 'the song that gets on everybody's nerves', Raito finally began to get on L's nerves.

"Would Raito-kun please stop that?" The voice on the speaker said.

"You're interrupting my masterpiece of vocal expertise."

"That would be a disquieting condition."

"Dis-quiet, that sounds nice. Only one day of this cell and I am already getting bored of silence."

"I believe Raito-kun understands the correct meaning of the word."

"No L, why don't you enlighten me."

"I think your already 'Light' enough, Light-kun."

"Name jokes now? Well…L is for Loser!"

"And what would I be losing at?"

"Life."

"You just raised your Kira percentage."

"Lies."

"I am speaking the truth Raito."

"Lollipops."

"Is confinement already making you speak nonsense?"

"Loop-de-loop."

"Excuse me?"

"L-O-L."

"Raito-kun is growing very annoying."

"Look."

The speaker did not respond again.

* * *

Mikami sat in confinement as well. He was silently watching Ryuk go through apple withdraws; it was something that had drawn his boredom away for awhile but, he decided, he was tired of the shinigami bothering him. Making a sudden decision, Mikami decided to give up ownership of the death note.

It would not make much of a difference; once he was out he could just reread his diary to regain his memories. Whether he knew he was Kira or not, he would still do everything in his power to support someone that was deleting the filth from the world so he would probably eventually met the second Kira and take their notebook.

"This pride of mine, I just have to give it up." Ryuk understood what he meant and left after laughing at him.

"Why am I here? There is no way I am Kira!" Mikami cried, a innocence of sorts renewed in his eyes.

* * *

This world will never be what I expected  
And if I don't belong who would have guessed it  
I will not leave alone everything that I own  
To make you feel like it's not too late, it's never too late

Even if I say it'll be alright  
Still I hear you say you want to end your life  
Now and again we try to just stay alive  
Maybe we'll turn it around 'cause it's not too late  
It's never too late


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: Wow! I almost have 100 review~only need like 7 more xD. Sorry readers but next update will be late, I am going out of town and must leave my laptop -sorry-.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the 'Mulan' lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 11

"Please take me off this investigation; we are holding my son as a Kira suspect. I shouldn't be here. I let my personal feelings get in the way."

"Your right personal feelings shouldn't be involved."

"And if my son is really Kira, I don't know what type of actions you would take."

"Yes. I could imagine you would kill your son and then yourself."

"Could you confine me as well? I don't want my feelings to get in the way."

"I thought you may say something that, I made Watari make arrangements." L had been astonished when Soichiro did not approach him previously about being detained; it was already fourteen days into the incarceration.

Before L could finish speaking, an abrupt intake of breath interrupted all thought and Soichiro fell to the ground with his hand clutching his heart. It appeared that Kira had gotten to him, already proving that Kira was conceivably not Raito.

Dread arose among the task force members as they all attempted to get Soichiro to an infirmary. L had decided on something and asked Watari to bring in a pair of handcuffs, although this request only added to the investigators' bewilderment. It would be callous to not release Raito from his cell, taking into consideration his father's situation, but he could not discharge Raito from his confinement for the time being.

Matsuda was finally getting Soichiro into a car to take him to the hospital but the rest of the investigators seemed intent on the fact that this was, in fact, the attack was Kira and Soichiro was already dead. A sigh escaped L's lips, there was more and more evidence pointing to L being wrong than to Light being Kira. The thought was disheartening; maybe Smile actually does have the genuine Kira.

Despite the panic around him, L's mind escaped into itself in order to consider things that had happened during Raito's confinement thus far.

The boy had been annoying, and although aggravation could not kill, it seemed Raito was intent on making L die from it. In the last few weeks, Raito had become more of the emotion in L's life than even Smile. Of course this could also be because of how distanced Smile had been acted recently. Every time he received a text, it seemed generic. Maybe L was imagining it but the texter did not even seem to be the same person as the Smile he usually spoke with.

Smile had recently mentioned the fact that he had a Kira suspect detained and when L tried to joke about it Smile seemed upset with his frolicking in such a dire circumstance.

Now could not be considered the time to reflect on in dept possibilities. L wanted to bring Raito out of the cell in person, although it did not seem like the best idea to do so. He may currently be upset for having been locked up for all that time, even though it had been Raito's own idea in the first place that sent him to the cell.

The venture to the cell in which Raito was being held took L several minutes, by the time L reached the cell Raito's father probably had already been pronounced dead. L felt pity for the miserable boy whose father most likely had died at Kira's hand but he did not allow the sympathy to effect him, Raito could still be counted as the number one Kira suspect.

Approaching the door of the cell in which Raito slept, L felt a slight tingle. It reminded him of the day Raito had removed the sticky note and had kissed him on the forehead to purposely get a reaction from him. Maybe Kira's elaborate plan was to raise reactions in L. Maybe by making L act human Kira could win. This was improbable.

"Raito-kun" L called as he opened the door to the cell.

"L? You're here? In person?" Raito's voice rattled with fear, had Watari told L who he was? That would prove to be detrimental. Rem was still in the cell and if Rem found out she might kill Raito for the pure joy of seeing Smile, the one who had openly mocked the second Kira's broadcast, die. Maybe she would kill L. For some reason the thought of his friend dying made him feel even worse than the thought of his own death.

"That should be obvious Raito-kun, you really do not seem to show the extent of your promised intelligence" L said as he moved towards Raito and removed the cuffs that had held Raito's hands and feet. The red marks that shimmered in the light unsettled L, had he personally caused such ruin to the teen? It would be worth it if he happened to be Kira but whenever he heard Raito speak, all he could think of was Smile.

"I am not the one with the title L hanging above my head but only acts like a child with an addiction to sugar" Raito said. The extent to which this statement was true amazed him. L really did have an L above his head, at least in Raito's eyes he did. While looking at these numbers Raito noticed something rather shocking. L's death was destined to be soon! Why?

"Speaking of things...Hanging…and my head only increase your Kira percentages."

"Why are you releasing me?"

"Kira has killed your father."

"What!" Raito's blurred eyes speed across the room in search of the shinigami. Rem had a satisfied smile on her face, that wicked creature had killed his father.

"Yagami-san has passed away due to a heart attack."

"Why?" Raito whispered and collapsed onto the floor. His eyes glared up at Rem, asking her what he had done wrong and why such a thing had happened.

"Protecting Misa is important to me and your father's death would ensure you that I will kill your mother, sister and self" Rem replied/

"Raito-kun, are you alright?" L watched as emotionless brown eyes gazed at him with obvious sadness, his eyes looked like a puppy by some means. The expression of sorrow was lost, there was no time to weep or place to sorrow while Kira still reined as king of all the imprudent fools that thought he was a god.

"That is not important now. Are you going to bring me to him?"

"I must keep Raito-kun under surveillance so that I can prove he is Kira" L said and clasped a cuff around Raito's hand. Then, he cuffed one side on his own wrist.

"Wow L, I know we're friends and all but I don't want to follow you around like a puppy."

"Raito-kun is being bad, sit." L was happy that this statement made Raito finally smile. Not that L wanted to see that trickster's cunning smile and know Raito was going to say something just to bother him.

"You are a really odd comforter but it worked."

"I do not often comfort people."

"I know."

"What do you mean, you know?"

"Nothing, why did you put the handcuffs on?"

"Come along Raito–kun, your father's body is at the local hospital."

Raito's smile seemed to fade a little after this statement but they continued on.

* * *

_"I don't know what you're talking about. What numbers?"_

_"Your numbers are there again, what do you do Kira?"_

_ "I am not Kira!"_

_"We have evidence to prove you are."_

_"Like what?"_

_"You did not have numbers."_

_"What numbers?"_

_"I do not feel like explaining it to your Kira, I am sure you know what I am talking about."_

_"Who are you? Why am I being held here-I did nothing wrong!"_

_"Murder is wrong"_

_"Can you please, if you will not let me go, at least provide food?"_

_"Fine"_

_"What is this?"_

_"A sandwich."_

_"What is in the sandwich?"_

_"Peanut butter and strawberry jam."_

_"I'm allergic to peanuts!"_

* * *

Gladness filled the girl who had known the Japanese hospital was in need of someone that was American. The job was very nice and the pay was substantial enough to pay for her living expenses. Usually, there was no major problems occurring but already today there was one major happening.

One of the victims of the mass murder named Kira was brought into the hospital. Basing her assumption off of the amount of officers with aliases that had accompanied him, she knew he had to be part of the police officers fighting against Kira.

She was glad that such a person had died! Kira did not need rebels fighting against him, such actions were shameful.

"Emma, please assist us with this man that had an allergic reaction" the girl turned to leave off to tend to this man but it seemed they would need a few minutes so the nurses to get the shots.

"So why did you eat the peanuts?" She asked a tone of apathy evident in her voice.

"H-forz me", Mikami said or attempted to say. ('He forced me')

"Why did you listen?"

"I wx in suspiton four bin Kire", he said through his swelling mouth. ('I was under suspicion for being Kira')

The doctor gasped at the revelation but could not ask any more questions when the nurse finally came in with the syringes.

* * *

Outside the door of a hospital room, L and Raito stood and argued about whether or not they were going to keep the chains on after the hospital visit. During this argument, L mentioned wanting Raito to be Kira.

Raito was upset and decided to lean against the door, which opened as he pushed it and he fell into the room bringing the cuffed man with him.

Once inside the room, Raito had hit into none other than Kira himself and L was shoved into Beyond.

Then Raito burst into laughter.

* * *

Staring straight right at me?  
Why is my reflection  
Someone I don't know?  
Somehow I cannot hide  
Who I am  
Though I've tried  
When will my reflection show  
Who I am inside?  
When will my reflection show  
Who I am inside?


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: I am back! Did ya' miss me? xD Thanks for all the amazing reviews. For all those that like the humor I attempted in previous chapters , be aware this one has a bit of a change in tone.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the lyrics-don't feel like including what the lyrics are.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 12

_Experiencing the change of minute to minute, the exhausted form of a fifteen year old boy watched the sun rise over the horizon. Yesterday had been the end of one of his hardest cases yet, and the beginning of a new friendship with a murderer._

_In the back of the hotel room, a black haired boy that was a few years older stared at the fifteen year old. They both had yet to discuss how Raito was going to be able to keep Beyond and they both knew if any other subject was discussed they may be compromising themselves._

_Raito had an easy time the previous day convincing Beyond to not start the fire he was going to use to kill himself and then convincing him that he could beat L without being a criminal. They both knew that for now the only reason that they both were going to stay together in harmony was so that they could gain information from the other and discover secrets of the red eyes._

_No matter the reason that Raito lied about, he had saved Beyond because of his eyes. Like Raito, Beyond saw death and names above every person's head. The same reasoning laid behind Beyond's staying with Raito, a simple want of knowledge and acceptance for an odd gift._

_A few words passed between the two occasionally but nothing of importance seemed to come up in speech. Questions clouded both of the incredibly intelligent being's minds but they knew vaguely that the other had the same questions floating in their tongues so the words would be inconsequential. Silence seemed to make the air of time seem dragged along; the string of moments waiting for someone to break it's fragile being._

_Raito finally broke the silence by opening his laptop and filling the room with the mechanical sound of a Windows computer starting up. He sighed at the sight of the many emails L had sent him, complaining about the fact that he was harboring a criminal. It did not matter what L thought, Smile would work out the situation directly with the dark haired women from the federal bureau of investigation._

_Beyond sent his eyes on a journey glancing around the room looking for something. At once he saw his simple quarry, the clock hung up against the wall displaying the time. His eyes narrowed in on the sleek black arms of the time teller. It was definitely telling him a tale he did not receive with well, the time was half past nine in the morning. An entire day had passed since his essential surrender._

_The two sets of red eyes danced across the room, oblivious or blatantly ignoring the other. The computer was the only noise that was still serving to disperse the stillness._

_Smacking the screen of the computer, an instant message from L appeared on Raito's screen._

_[L]: 'It's a criminal act to harbor criminal's'_

_[: )]: 'It's a criminal act to hold back information that could help solve a case'_

_[L]:'So Beyond told you about me?'_

_[: )]:'No. I guessed and you just gave yourself away.'_

_[L]:'Liar.'_

_[: )]: 'So perceptive.'_

_[L]: 'Are you looking into the killer in this area that is using biblical scriptures to support each killing?'_

_[: )]: 'Not yet, but you caught my interest. Hold on let me pull up some information on it.'_

_[L]: 'Too late.'_

_[: )]: 'What?'_

_[L]: 'I solved it already.'_

_[: )]: 'Why did you tell me about it then?'_

_[L]: 'You beat me to discovering who the killer in the BB case was, and I beat you this time.'_

_[: )]: 'Why does that matter?'_

_[L]: 'An eye for an eye.'_

_[: )]: '196th law of the Law Code of Hammurabi' (An ancient Babylonian law code that contains the idea of an eye for an eye)_

_[L]: 'Yes, one of the only laws of that code I agree with.'_

_[: )]: 'So you do believe that there should be a chance for redemption for murders?'_

_[L]: 'No I believe the Hammurabi Law Code had a social injustice.'_

_[: )]: 'In what way?'_

_[L]: 'Those with a certain amount of money could buy their way out of punishment.'_

_[: )]: 'Don't you believe people still do that today?'_

_[L]: 'The law has improved much since that time but it will never be perfect.'_

_[: )]: 'In its time it was the first written law, so I think it was one of the greatest improvements in law ever.'_

_[L]: 'Smile is naïve.'_

_[: )]: 'L is an inept.'_

_[L]: 'Well at least I don't think the law at this time needs to be enhanced, next thing I know you're going to have a complex and be trying to eradicate transgression by yourself.'_

_[: )]: 'I would never do that. Being a detective is much more fulfilling.'_

_[L]: 'Even that is tedious if you have no challenges.'_

_[: )]: 'You are a challenge.'_

_[L]: 'You are as well.'_

_[: )]: 'Thanks, I think?'_

_[L]: 'I support what ever you come to a decision to do with Beyond, I have a certain conviction in you.'_

_[: )]: 'Is that like trust?'_

_[L]: 'Possibly but I do not want to seem naïve myself.'_

_[: )]: 'If the situation was in reverse I would feel the same.'_

_[L]: 'A bond of trust, how very poetic.'_

_[: )]: 'I have to sign off and speak to Beyond.'_

_That was a lie, it would be several more mounts before Beyond and Raito carried out an actual conversation._

* * *

The nurse with a silver name tag that read the word Emma stared in surprise. At one time excitement at this hospital could be considered impossible but now there was Kira suspects, Kira victims, chained men, and bizarre starring contests between exceedingly intelligent groups of people.

Looking up at the beautiful boy that had landed on him, Mikami felt a surge of memory run through him. Where had he seen this boy before? The shopping district, he remembered writing in a diary about the experience. Why did he keep a diary? Laughter came from the teen; Mikami supposed this situation may be termed quite humorous.

L and Beyond stared at each other with an emotion of something, was it hate? Possibly Beyond still held a grudge for what had happened to A. Was it surprise? Their involvement with the man aliased by the term Smile had completely changed both of their personalities, and Beyond's physical appearance. Could the emotion be sadness or hope? They had not seen each other for so long, and now they both gifted with chances in the world.

"BB" L acknowledged a greeting after he managed to get up, and Raito followed suit but greeting Mikami and getting up himself.

Raito and Mikami had met earlier so it was not surprising to him that Raito knew his name but the way he said it sent shivers down his spine. The voice was not sensational in an alluring way; instead it seemed deadly and venomous. There was obvious hostility displayed by the teen.

"Why do you have a charm bracelet on?" Beyond said and stared at the handcuffed Raito, who at the moment seemed to be choking at Beyond's comment.

"I find it inappropriate for you to refer to a person as a charm."

"'For me to refer to a person as a charm'? Does that mean that others would be justified in saying such things? Others like yourself, who think he is a charm?" L lost his composure at Beyond's comment and stumbled over the IV that was standing beside the hospital bed. L hoped this comment did not mean that Beyond could read minds, if that was the case much of L's efforts would be in vain.

"I have no idea what you are referring to."

Mikami tried to speak to Raito or as he had been told the name, 'Light'. "Light-san, why are you honestly handcuffed to him?"

"It's none of your concern." Raito snapped at the man who he desperately did not want to speak to, this person had caused the entire business with Kira. This person had caused his father's death, the lies he had told to the person he wanted to tell the truth to, the touching of lips between himself and the second Kira, and the fact that he had to pretend to be Kira.

Glancing at the person who caused his misery, Raito's eyes widened. Why were the numbers back again? What had Kira done? Had Raito been wrong? Impossible, Mikami was Kira and there was no doubt of the manner but the way he looked so innocent and the numbers above his head told another tale. He had to ask Rem about this.

The discourteous tone that Raito exhibited towards Mikami surprised L. There seemed to be a difference in the way Raito treated Mikami as opposed to anyone else. L considered the possibility that Raito was Kira and he was merely showing the true design of his persona. Maybe it had something to do with Mikami, which reminded L of the odd fact that the man was accompanying Beyond.

"Beyond, why is Mikami-san with you?"

"He's Kira." So that was the reason Raito was treating him in such a way but how would Raito know that Mikami was also a suspect? There was a high probability that Raito knew Mikami was some sort of Kira imposter because Raito himself was Kira, L reasoned.

"No I am not!" Mikami cried in a voice that sounded pitiful, full of sorrow and fear.

Amused by the 'god's' pitiful refute of identity, Raito let a smile fill his face and then reached down to L's form which was still beside the IV he had stumbled over. "Do you need some assistance to get up?" Raito continued to contemplate the reason Mikami had numbers once again, it must mean he had given up possession of the 'Death Note'. Misa had done this and lost her memories so it must have been the same way with Mikami. Fool, now they would have to give him a death note before he could be prosecuted.

"No", L said and reject the hand Raito offered as he stood up and looked wearily at the two murders and the detective that he thought was a murder. This was an unsettling rooming situation, they needed to leave and soon.

The aggravated nurse cut into the conversation, "Sorry to interrupt you but I need to give Mikami the shots before his face is permanently bruised by the allergic reaction."

L and Raito complied and headed off towards the room that held Soichiro; they had yet to visit.

The chained duo arrived at the room holding the deceased man. Raito fell to his knees beside his father and began to whisper something that L could not make out.

'I wanted to tell you…tell you I was Smile. When I was younger I knew you would tell me to stop solving cases but soon I was going to tell you. I can't believe I will never get the chance and it's all the fault of supernatural forces. I'll stop them for you, even if it means my life. I'll stop Kira, I promise!'

Hearing the last statement made, L decided that Raito seemed to being a bit overdramatic for someone so distant from his father. Maybe this was to Raito just another act to ruse L into thinking he was not Kira. Using the death of his father for such reasons seemed disgusting to L; maybe that was because most of his life L never had parents that cared for him and he knew Soichiro cared for Raito.

Raito forced a mask of security to cover his face and ensure himself that no tears would be shed. He thought over his actions the past few mounts and wondered what could have been differently. If Raito hadn't gone to meet the second Kira, if Raito hadn't made himself suspicious, if he wasn't Smile but if such conditions transpired the result may have been worse. He knew that if he had not become Smile that he would have done something more destructive to cure his boredom and if he hadn't gone to met Misa then she would have united with the first Kira.

At that moment Raito wished he was just Smile. The screen that he so fittingly hid behind seemed so inviting, as did the chance to speak to L without being suspected of anything, so Raito longed for it. He remembered a time that L had said that they had a bond of trust; L had broken it without even realizing it.

L set his hand on Raito's shoulder to comfort him.

In a swift movement, Raito swatted away the hand and his face contorted into a reprimanding frown of disgust. How could L touch the shoulder of someone he thought to be a murder? How could he call someone suspected of being Kira his friend? How could he try to comfort someone who he thought killed their own father? Raito remembered the feeling of touching Misa, how could L not have such a feeling when they touched?

L thought he was a murder, so shouldn't he feel the blood of the victims and hear the screams of hearts as the beating seized? It disgusted Raito that L would be so kind to someone like him, or at least what L thought him to be.

"You think I killed him, don't you?"

"Raito-kun…"

"You think I killed my own father! How could you try to comfort someone that you think had done such a wrong?"

This made sense to L, it was illogical that L would want to comfort a murder but Raito just seemed like a friend to him and L wanted him to be happy. L was glad Smile did not know about this, if anyone should react badly to L's actions it would be him.

"Raito-kun should lower his voice in the hospital." Maybe that was not the best thing to say.

"I want to leave."

"Raito-kun is not waiting for-"

"Brother?" A sobbing voice cut off L's question and answered it at the same time. Sayu ran towards her brother and wrapped her arms around him. Chocked sobs came from her mouth when she looked at the body of her father.

"You should not be in here."

"This is its fault, isn't it?" She whispered only loud enough for Raito to hear. She was referring to the Shinigami that Raito had told her about.

"It is none of your concern, I don't want you to get hurt, with dad already gone and only you and mom and…"

"B" Sayu whispered and received a nod from Raito.

There was a lot of whispering, this only raised the percentile of Raito being Kira. What did his sister know? Did she know information about how he killed? L walked closer so that he could hear the whispers but now all he heard was Sayu's whines.

Sympathy filled L but he did not express it, in order to keep Raito from becoming upset at him once again. The absence of a smile of Raito's face made L depressed. Maybe L could make him smile; promise him that they could work on the Kira case together or something? That would work the only problem would be the handcuffs.

How could they function daily if L left the handcuffs on? It would not be too big of a problem as long as L remembered that Raito was potentially Kira, not Smile.

"Can Raito-kun ask his sister to speak slightly louder so that I can hear?" L heard Raito grumble something about him not needed to hear before a fist hit him in the face. It might be disrespectful to fight in the same room a dead man laid but L did not seem to care. "I do have respect for the dead but-"L lashed out a kick aimed at Raito. "An eye for an eye."

A few more kicks and punches were exchanged. Raito smiled, this was the same L as always with the same quotes and thoughts. It was probably time to get going and figure out whether or not L would let him out of the tedious cuffs.

He said goodbye to Sayu before leaving along with the man that had cuffed himself to him.

On the way back to the place the task force was situated at, L told Raito what the plans were for Raito's future confinement. They would be handcuffed 24/7 until Raito was proved innocent.

"I bet Smile would never do something so exasperating."

"What was that Raito-kun?"

"I bet that other detective would never do something like this."

"Don't speak about Smile."

"You seem defensive, is he your friend?"

"Kira-kun should stop prying for information."

"Is he like just a friend and you want it to be something more?"

"I have never even met him!"

"So I'm right?"

"No!"

Watari's voice informed them that they had arrived.

* * *

Would you mind if I hurt you?  
Understand that I need to  
Wish that I had other choices  
than to harm the one I love

What have you done now?!

I know I'd better stop trying  
You know that there's no denying  
I won't show mercy on you now  
I know, should stop believing  
I know, there's no retrieving  
It's over now, what have you done?


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: Yes please hate me, you know you love the first few sentences of this chapter! xD Sorry that this update is kind-of short.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own Edgar Allan Poe's poem.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 13

Beside an office building on a park bench, two bodies sat beside one another, each leaning towards the other slightly. Their eyes were interlocked and without words their minds fought a battle of ultimate wit and intellect.

The brown haired man, who appeared in his late teens, spoke into the other man's ear. "L Lawliet, I have a secret I want you to know. I am Smile."

Meeting the brunette's eyes with his own black ones, L stared. His lips began to curl into a smile as he stared at Yagami Raito.

"L, Misa will be arriving soon." Raito's words brought L out of the foolish day dream and reminded him that the beautiful child beside him was Kira not Smile! L was not looking forward to the blonde's arrival but it was already far too late.

The two headed inside in order to meet the freshly released girl that had been freed from confinement. Raito heard her before he saw her and he already knew the first thing she was going to comment on.

Misa sat in a room among the crowd of investigators, all of whom still seemed saddened by the loss of Soichiro. The room could be termed very akward with the melodramatic blonde model, the three gentry sitting with stern faces, and the two men attached by a chain.

"You're going to be with him 24 hours a day on cuffs? It's kind of gross for two men to be like that Ryuuzaki, is that what you're into?" Misa demanded when see caught sight of Raito and the dangling chain that attached him to L. By her assumption it seemed one of the investigators had already given her a summary of the situation, Raito found unlikely that Misa had realized the handcuff's purpose with an explanation.

"I told you I am not doing this because I want to." L explained to the complaining girl.

"But, Raito belongs to Misa if you're with him 24 hours a day then when will I have time to go on dates with him?"

"Dates will be between the three of us."

"Are you telling me we have to kiss in front of you?"

"I'm not telling you to do anything but I will be watching."

"What's with that? You really are a pervert, aren't you?"

"Raito-kun, please silence Misa."

"Misa, don't be selfish. You were definitely the one who sent the tapes, just be grateful that you're allowed as much freedom as this" Raito said placidly.

"What are you talking about? I'm your girlfriend, aren't I? Don't you trust your lover?"

"I trust you like death is held in front of me and forcing me to stay with you." The statement was made in such a manner merely to bother L, while at the same time leaving a hint to the situation Raito was undergoing.

"That simile raises Kira percentages" L retorted. Raito grimanced at this, did L not realize he was trying to explain the situation?

"So you took advantage of the fact that I love you and kissed me? Stupid-stupid, stupid!" Misa had droplets of water pillowing in her innocent eyes as she spoke the words.

Raito walked away from the crying girl and over to a cabinet in the room that held dishes. Although the place was relatively new, a layer of dust formed on the top of the cabinet. Hastening his finger along the soft textured layer of filth, Raito disarrayed it into the configuration of a smile.

Everyone seemed too focused on L's line of questioning to notice Raito's actions.

"Misa, did this 'love' happen to occur after May 22nd in Aoyama?" L questioned.

"Yes."

"Why did you happen to go to Aoyama?"

"She's idiotic", a soft mumble from Raito responded but L seemed unconcerned with his thoughts on the matter at hand.

"What did you wear?" L asked Misa.

"I told you, I just happened to go there. I don't really remember what I felt that day or what I wore!"

"Of course not Misa, reminiscence requires a psyche", Raito whispered again.

"Raito-kun please don't disrupt my questions with your thoughts." L was surprised that the boy stuck his tongue out at this, such a hypocrite of his own objections about Misa's thoughts when he himself seemed to not be thinking clearly. "Misa, what would you feel if Raito-kun was Kira?"

"That would be wonderful. I've always been grateful to Kira for punishing the man who murdered my parents. If Raito were Kira, I'd love him more. Though, I love him so much already!"

"We're talking about Kira here".

"No, really?" Raito asked and moved away from the cabinet he had been stationed by.

"I would appreciate it if Raito-" L watched as Raito purposefully spun in a circular motion and pulled the hand cuff along with him making L fall into Misa.

"Why are you falling for me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Ever since we have been cuffed together it seems you are falling over things and falling into people." Raito watched Misa and L straighten themselves and surprisingly Misa did not complain, yet.

"Raito-kun, your percentage of being Kira has just reached over eighty."

"Is that supposed to give way to a reaction?"

"Allow me to explain to Misa the terms of her release." L turned to the girl who had now attached herself to Ratio's arm."You will remain under surveillance; when you go out contact us using this room's extension. From now on for private and work-related affairs, Mr. Matsuda will accompany you as your manager, Matsui. I've already paid off your agency to agree to this."

"Hey there, I'm Matsui" One of the investigators sitting spoke up gleefully.

"I haven't told the police, so be sure not to give yourself away" L told Matsuda, although it was probable that anything L said went through one of his ears and out the other without staying in the empty space inbetween,

"This old man's going to be my manager, how awful" Misa said in response to the man.

"No way! What's wrong with me Misa-Misa?" Matsuda said with a tone of genuine sorrow.

"Cut it out with all this dating, kissing, and Misa-Misa talk! This is the Kira case, understand? Take it seriously." Aizawa began to yell after hearing Matsuda's foolish comments. Stomping towards Misa with intents of getting her out of the room, Aizawa exhibited his rage.

"Sorry. No, I'm sorry. I know we're serious but-" Matsuda began to say but was interrupted.

"Amane, Go to your room now" Aizawa demanded.

"What?" Misa said forlornly.

"No questions come on."

"Raito, let's go on a date, all three of us!" Misa screeched as she was forced out of the room. At least, she was pushed through.

All those remaining in the room seemed to be waiting for L to cross analyze every action that had occured.

"Raito-kun, are you serious about her?" L asked.

"Serious? Why such a word would be used in such context or in any context puzzles me. Matsuda-san and Aizawa-san also used such a word. Would you rather dwell on the bloodiest sorrows of criminal activity or be amused for a moment by a suspect that seems so foolishly innocent? In my relationship with Misa, I feel no need for being serious for if it shall be that we separate it will bring me just as much joy as if we stay together everlastingly."

"Interesting, someone once told me something similar. You'll mature out of such viewpoints, he did."

"Maybe he is not the same person."

"Could you act to Misa as if you are serious? I'm sure Misa's connected with the second Kira from the video incident. And also from the way she loves you."

"Are you asking me to become intimate with her so I can find information about the second Kira?"

"Yes, I think you can do it. And we can get clues to solve this case from Amane. This is why I released both of you."

"Even if it is for the Kira case, I can never use a woman's feelings like that. I'm sorry, to me taking advantage of another person's feelings is unforgivable and the most despicable thing a person can do."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"The most despicable thing a person can do is waste a well prepared sugar product" L said in a way that suggested he was joking despite his monotone.

"Maybe the next hotel we change to will have more sugar for you."

"I have been thinking about that-"

"Sugar?"

"The system of changing hotels. That's why construction started immediately after I first met the investigators and decided to work together." L made his way over to a laptop and displayed a picture of the building. "It is twenty three floors above ground and two under."

Raito stared in astonishment; it was right next to Smile's building and had been built two buildings away from where Mikami had completed the killings of the FBI agents that were working on the case. L was continuing to explain something about the building but Raito only stared at the neighboring area.

Matsuda had asked a stupid question that needed a response but L was distracted by a ringing that sounded in his pocket. Slipping his phone out of his pocket, L was surprised to see a message from Smile. It had been a few days since the last message had arrived.

_Message sent 4:30 a.m. Number Unknown._

_'How is the investigating going?'_

_Message sent 4:32 a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Fine. Are you still up for the bet?"_

_Message sent 4:35a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Bet? Please refresh my memory.'_

_Message sent 4:40a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You're not Smile'_

_Message sent 4:45a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You are as smart as I remember you being at Wammy's'_

_Message sent 4:48a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Why hasn't Smile messaged me, Beyond?'_

_Message sent 4:51a.m. Number Unknown._

_'Kira has killed many people, innocent and good people.'_

_Message sent 4:56a.m. Number Unknown._

_'You are stating that Smile died.'_

_Message sent 5:00 a.m. Number Unknown._

_'No, I am merely implying it.'_

* * *

From childhood's hour I have not been  
As others were; I have not seen  
As others saw; I could not bring  
My passions from a common spring.  
From the same source I have not taken  
My sorrow; I could not awaken  
My heart to joy at the same tone;  
And all I loved, I loved alone.  
Then–in my childhood, in the dawn  
Of a most stormy life–was drawn  
From every depth of good and ill  
The mystery which binds me still


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's note: Took me quite a bit of time to write this, kept writing it and then changing my mind and erasing it all.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own lyrics (but I did change them xD ).  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 14

Flicking over the buttons, L changed the screen on the cell phone several times to ensure the last ten minutes of texts had been more than a hallucination. The black haired detective pressed the edge if his thumb against his lip, dragging the dry formation until the entire bottom lip was parallel to his eye. Contemplatively, L looked towards the computer in front of him.

The screen had disappeared without a word, as had the other investigators in the room. Smile had done this too, left not only the realm of communication with L but the state of quintessence. It would be an unwarranted theory to state that he was merely lonely, instead he was cut off from the illusion of social interaction he had come to cherish.

There was, of course, the slight chance that Beyond had been lying, creating a trickery of words and a puzzle. L contemplated this possibility. Beyond never directly made the statement that Smile was dead, he only stated that Kira had killed masses of virtuous people and that he was implying Smile could be dead.

Did Beyond not know Smile's condition? It was unlikely; in such a situation he would have given L a more straightforward answer instead of being maddening. L whispered the words to the phone in an attempt of grieving and coming to terms with the truth of the matter. "Smile is dead; he is truly a victim at the hands of the sickest criminal ever to come into existence."

The screech of the worn springs in one of the seats filled L's mind with the comprehension that he at the moment was not completely alone. He had a suspect, a striking teen, chained to his arm. Peering at the boy beside him, L was surprised to find a look of utter shock which indirectly meant he had heard L's spoken words. Raito was now aware that the greatest detective ever to live, since in his death L could not argue for the title, had been killed by a mastermind of natural death dealing.

Raito met the eyes of L when he turned. He knew if L found out that Beyond was the one sending the text messages then a lie would have to be made but this was unexpected. It made sense though; L would not ask any more questions and leave Beyond as is. If, by chance, Beyond had instead given the excuse of disease or sickness of any kind than L would have wanted to go see Smile to wish him a 'get well soon'. L, on the other hand, would not request entry to a funeral for a man he only knew from the sentence responses on a phone or over the computer.

"L, are you feeling well?" Raito knew the question was stupid, of course he was not. The antisocial man had just realized his first friend was dead!

"Raito-kun, I will be chaining you to the cabinet for a moment. There is something I need to speak with Watari regarding" L said but his tone did not seem emotionless, it seemed strained.

Since there was no objections from Raito, L left the one specimen of company he had acquired in the room and left to the kitchen. The kitchen, like the rest of this magnificent hotel was made relatively new looking. All the utensils and equipment was stainless steel and shining from their lack of use.

Watari stood in front of the of oven with a cake in his left hand and his eyes searching few laptops set up along the counter displaying information for the case, as well as camera images of different parts of the hotel.

"Watari?" L said in a voice that once again showed some type of strain.

"Yes sir, what do you need?"

"Smile is dead." Unnoticed by L, Watari glanced at one of the computer screens that displayed an image of Raito trying unsuccessfully to do a handstand while chained to a cabinet. Watari recognized that Smile was very much alive. Waiting for L to continue, Watari's eyes watched Smile fall into the cabinet and get tangled between the chain and the wall. "Beyond contacted me on the matter. Why is this funny Watari?" A feeble finger pointed to the screen of the laptop that was watching Raito.

The laptop showed Raito flip over from the handstand and fall face first onto the floor. A curse sounded through the laptop as Raito successfully sat up.

"His Kira percentages just dropped significantly" L said. His voice had returned to monotone after being amused by the suspect but there was still sadness although the only one that would have noticed the trait was Watari. The conversation then was quickly shifted back to Smile's death.

* * *

There had been far more clientele at the law office since the striking new building was added to the offices on this street but it was rather obvious the current guest was not among the clients. Embracing the chances this displaced appearance brought, the guest of the law office acted like an idiotic fool in order to generate lax tongues on the members of the firm and be provided open explanation.

The visitor searched for something or someone they could not find. Several lawyers and attorneys in the building thought the person have come to the wrong address but still worked to fulfill the person's wishes. One of the men in the building had a brilliant idea as to what the person had come for. The intern, Mikami Teru, had left all of his things at his desk.

Nodding to the statement, the visitor acknowledged the information regarding Mikami. The guest of the law office was led off into a small office that Mikami had used to work.

For the most part the room was empty. Filling the spacey room, a tatter swivel chair stared at the desk and invited the visitor to sit and peer at the contents of the previous worker's desk. The mahogany wood desk was decorated with only a collection of two notebooks: one was black and one was blue. Over the next few minutes, the members of the law office departed and left the guest to sort through Mikami's stuff.

The black notebook had two English words on it but unfortunately the guest was not very fluent in the language. One of the words meant 'note' but the other had never been discussed in English classes that the guest had participated in. It probably only meant 'book', the guest decided, as they flipped open to a page that contained the words 'strawberry jam'. Was this a grocery list?

Turning to the other notebook, the visitor's interest was galvanized. Inside the blue notebook, the words of a diary had been neatly written. Deciding to bring only the blue book with them, the guest of the law offices left without saying a farewell to the workers of the offices.

In honesty, the person had gone to the wrong location since they had been trying to find the office of the great detective Smile not the office of the great criminal Kira. For the time being the guest would know they had been at the wrong place but would not realize the dramatic irony present in their choice of destination.

* * *

"It is possible L that Beyond provided you with such information in order to hinder you from discovering Smile's true situation" Watari stated. L sat in his traditional way on the chair located near Watari and then stared at the ceiling.

"I have considered that. But I do not want to delude myself, it is best to embrace the most likely possibility."

"The world always viewed L and Smile as a team. L the pessimistic bad cop and Smile the optimistic good cop would always solve the world's problems." Watari brought out a bowl and filled it with ice-cream for L. "If what you say is true you need to fill the place of optimism and hope that things are not the probable result."

"Probabilities are closer to facts than hopes are" L stated as the bowl of ice-cream was finally shoved in front of him. "Thank you."

Watari was surprised; L must have been really depressed to actually honor the decency of saying thank you. It was best to leave the situation alone. If Beyond had actually lied to L about Smile's existence there was some reason behind it that Watari needed to find out directly from Raito. "I am going to check on Yagami-kun to ensure he has not harmed himself with the chain, try not to eat any sugar directly from the container". Watari pressed a button in his pocket before he left the room.

It had been a while since L had left and Raito had decided to do something to alleviate his boredom. He regretted it now; he had damaged his ankle and bruised part of his arm after his pathetic fall. It was only worsened when Watari came in and asked him about his well being. There had been cameras in the room watching him the entire time, why had he done something so stupid?

A vague nod followed Watari's questioning and Raito stood up painfully and looked around for L. Where was he? Watari had came by himself which most likely meant L had told him about 'Smile's death' and Watari needed an explanation. Raito could not provide him with information regarding Rem and death note without Watari telling L. Then, of course, if Watari told L then Misa would be convicted and Rem would kill Raito and his family. Would she kill L too? Raito frowned at the thought.

"I am sure you know what I want to know" Watari said to Raito who appeared to be looking around to make sure someone or something wasn't watching.

"There are innocent lives at stake if certain information gets out, my side of the investigation has the first Kira but there is much more to this case then who the criminal is. I would appreciate it if you did not ask questions, Wammy-san" Raito said in a voice that reminded Watari of someone else. The voice was stern, emotionless and full of conviction. Watari knew this was not the voice of a seventeen year old; it was the voice of one of the world's great detectives, L often spoke this way.

"L thought of Smile as his only friend, I hope you know that." Watari said before pressing a button that he had earlier pressed and leaving the room. Hopefully, no one would notice the missing camera footage during the time in which he had spoken to Raito.

Raito pondered Watari's statement. For most of his life Raito had regarded L in the same way, his only true friend and his best friend. The thought of L dying upset Raito although he saw the death of everyone he knew plastered above their heads. In a way Raito knew he was causing far worse than an 'upset at future death possibility' in L's emotions. Through the use of Beyond, Raito had killed himself or at least his alias and caused L the pain of losing his best friend.

Watari had implicitly requested that Raito should comfort L, even if he did not give him the truth of the matter. A smile filled Raito's face; the mustached man was as wise as his old age held him out to be. Staring at the ceiling, Raito thought up plans of consoling the disheartened detective.

It would be hours later when L finally returned to the room and Raito had yet to come up with an epiphany as far as comforting him.

Staring at the teen chained to the cabinet, L felt a sudden rush of hatred. If Raito was Kira he had killed Smile. Smile, Kira, and Ratio, Ratio is Kira? Kira killed Smile? Raito killed Smile? Raito is Smile? Smile is alive. Kira will be killed. That thought could almost make L smile despite his distraught condition. Smile had started acting distant around the same time Raito was confined but Kira's killings had also temporarily stopped during the beginning of Raito's confinement.

"L? What time is it?" Raito asked, interrupting L's thoughts.

"Around twelve."

"Twelve? Midnight! Sleep deprivation will not make me confess anything!"

Normal people needed a certain amount of sleep, L had forgotten that fact. Didn't Smile usually go to sleep around the Japanese time of midnight? It was best to push such thoughts aside for the moment, Smile might be dead and L realized he had to accept that fact and not theorize random intelligent individuals into his place. There was no response given to Raito's outburst but L attached the cuff on the cabinet onto his own wrist and began to walk towards his bedroom.

When the two arrived at the room, Raito was stricken with a bolt of shock. There was only one bed, one bed and two people meant that he would have to sleep with L. This fact did not bother Raito as much as the fact that L did not seem concerned with the sleeping arrangement. Raito knew how L handled his cases, sleeping with a suspect even in the most innocent of ways was something that the black haired detective did not do!

"Will Raito-kun be retiring to sleep?" L, through this simple question, started a new game. Who would lay down first? Raito did not like to lose, neither did L.

L and Raito managed to position themselves on opposite sides of the bed regardless of the chain that dangled in the bed that neither of them would enter. The two detectives stared into each others' eyes. This meant war, who would fall first?

Simultaneously, the two placed one hand on the comforter and then watched to see the other's reaction. To whoever lost the game, the actions would be simplistic coincidences but to the winner it would be the ending to a silent war. And if they by chance they would reach a tie then the game would show equality, complexity, how perfectly their thoughts worked as one. Limb by limb, the later result occurred. The game was won with a tie.

Before nodding off to a night of slumber, Raito noticed a smile on L's face. At least Raito was not dreadfully terrible at comforting him.

Hearing the sleep stricken breaths of his only accompanying person, L was panged with loneliness. He brought out his cell phone to once again gaze as the troublesome messages. It was probably time to make a reply to Beyond and decide on several matters regarding what was to occur after Smile's death. Beyond was, after all, a criminal that still held homicidal intentions occasionally and he needed to be watched in order to monitor his murderous activities.

_Message sent 2:23a.m. Number unknown._

_'How do you foresee the handling of your situation after Smile's death?'_

L was unsure of how Beyond would reply to this, hopefully he had not already 'handled the situation' the same way he had 'handled' the situation a few years back in horrific blooded artworks of the deceased human body. If Beyond started to murder again then all the effort Smile had exhorted would go to waste.

Now was not the time to dwell on this, now was the time to contemplate the being known as Kira. Natural deaths, so unthought-of prior to this case but now they were the norm of murders.

Over time, L's thoughts clouded and he felt the need to rest in sleep for a few moments. He would have done so peacefully if not for the image of Raito's eyes flashing open to reveal two glowing rubies of red pigmentation. Was it a nightmare or a dream? L could only wonder as his vision slipped away from the redness.

* * *

Sayu and Sachiko Yagami sat quietly on opposite sides of the table, both maneuvering the fork's fingers through the food without ever lifting the substance to their mouths. It had been this quiet and lonesome since Soichiro Yagami dies from Kira's evil attack.

Both of them were bothered by Raito working in such close contact with a deadly murder that had so easily killed their father and husband already. Each of them had a personal reason to worry.

Sayu knew the details of the entire situation. By knowing about Rem, Smile, Misa, Kira, Mikami, and L, Sayu had an advantage to almost everyone except possibly Smile's assistant, Beyond. She knew that if something went wrong she had a civic obligation to help the general public and the Kira investigation despite her intelligence, which was vastly inferior to Smile and L.

Sachiko's son was working with the same people that had allowed her husband to be killed. How could Raito handle such interaction? No one noticed it except her but until now Raito was always in his room with the door locked, it was as if his only friends existed in school acquaintances and that person he was always on the phone with. Concern was an indistinct if not completely irrelevant word to use for how she felt, it was far more then concern for her son. It was fear, fear of losing what was left of her life's joy.

Piercing the gloomy silence, a knock sounded at the door. Sayu followed the noise to its source and opened the door cautiously. Behind the door stood a man with black, shoulder length, hair and another man with black and red streaked hair. Neither of the two looked too old but the one had a certain sadistically playful smile that made him seem younger.

"Hello Sayu-san, my name is B. I am a friend of Light-san's."

"I know who you are" Sayu said in a sorrowful way, how she hoped this was not the notice of Raito's death.

Interrupting the conversation between the two, the man with the longer black hair spoke up. "Light? Is that not the teen we met in the hospital?" After an expanse of time with no response Sayu said a comment unrelated to the situation at hand.

"I am sorry, please come in both of you. My name is Sayu and I know who B is, who might you be?"

"Mikami Teru, it is a pleasure to meet you" Mikami said in a way that somehow did not sound at all 'pleasured'.

Mikami Teru? Sayu had an idea, maybe she could help Smile, L, and Beyond fight against Kira.

* * *

**(Micro-Song fic based on Hannah Montana's "If we were a movie", which I DO NOT OWN)**

If we were a movie you'd be the detective  
And I'd be the prime suspect that you fall in love with  
In the end we'd be dying, watching the last breath  
Fade to black, show the names, play the sadistic song

Wish I could tell you there's a twist, some kind of investigator in disguise  
And we're together, it's for real, now playing  
Wish I could tell you there's a kiss like something more than in my mind  
I see it could be tramatizing


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's note: It is kind of short and kind of late. Sorry, I have been really sick and could not think but I wanted to post a new chapter.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 15

"I need to retrieve some things from Light-san's room" Beyond said, interrupting the conversation between Mikami and Sayu. The girl only responded with a nod and Beyond turned to say something to Mikami. "Stay."

Under any other circumstances Sayu would have sniggered at the grown man telling another grown man such a childish demand but she understood now was not the time. Beyond had never before invaded the social structure of Raito's life for any reason, what ever was going on held upmost importance. As she watched Beyond leave towards her brother's bedroom, Sayu became uneasy. What could be in her house, in her brother's room, that was of such importance?

"Mikami-san, why have you come along with him?" She beseeched in order to remove her thoughts from troubling matters.

"I would rather not disclose that information." Sayu stared at the man with shoulder length black hair. Why did people find the need to hide so much information?

Mikami seemed like he was going to add something to his statement but he was interrupted by Beyond returning with a laptop. They had came all the way over here for a laptop?

When Sayu saw the laptop she immediately understood. Beyond would not be able to directly contact the police without that particular computer, Smile's computer. She had watched Raito use the same computer to edit together the footage and hack into the satellite signal on the day she found that he is Smile. Their need for the piece of the technology was justified but it also meant an unfortunate truth; it would be a long time until Raito returned home.

Sayu smiled politely at Beyond before making a request. "B, I know something that might be helpful to you."

A sadistic smile found its contorting way onto Beyond's face as he glared at Sayu. "Sayu-san, Light-san will kill me in the most tortuous of ways if I allow you to do anything involving this case, do you understand me? You need to comfort your mother and wait for Smile to take care of matters." Beyond waved his hand in a gesture to Mikami so that the man knew to follow him. Once Mikami had began to walk towards him, Beyond walked towards the door of the house.

"Wait! I will show you what information I have. Hold on a moment!" Sayu ran towards her room to grab something but by the time she returned the two had left as unexpectedly as they had arrived.

Looking at the object she had went to her room to obtain, Sayu grimaced. Why hadn't they stayed around just a few more moments so she could give this to them? She returned to her room in order to place the item back in its place. Upon entering her room, Sayu let out a shriek. There was a black colored being floating in her room.

"…Interesting", the creature remarked as it took an apple that had been on Sayu's dresser and ate it messily.

Letting her eyes study the being, Sayu tried to place some realistic idea along with the thing. It had on strange tight black clothing, with a hair that matched that matched the strange fur that adorned his shoulders. An earring dangled from his left ear, it was shaped like a heart but Sayu knew enough to realize this heart did not symbolize love. Around his waist was a skull clad belt and a chain that attacked itself to a black rectangular shape.

The stares finally disturbed the creature and it turned to look and the fearful girl's face. Something was amusing in the creature's eyes so it let out a harsh laugh.

Something in Sayu's minds registered, the story Raito told her. The Kira threatened him, right? How was Kira getting her powers except by some god of death? Shinigami must look like this, or at least similar to this particular one. Was this the same one that Raito had been with when he met Kira? Sayu doubted this; this one seemed too lax to be concerned about a Kira's welfare.

Maybe it would be beneficial to befriend the creature. "Hi Shinigami-san, my name is Yagami Sayu."

"You don't have the notebook? You just took the few pages he had tucked in the pages of his little diary."

"Sorry, what are you speaking about?"

"Write a name in the diary, on the third page-the one that's blank."

"Why?" The shinigami laughed again at the question.

Sayu decided writing a name could do no harm, so she opened the diary to the specified page and wrote the first name that came to mind.

* * *

Whirling in a circle during the course of walking, Beyond turned to stare at Kira with contempt. There were still numbers above his head, it was aggravating. Another frustrating fact about the numbers was the length; if he was to be convicted as a mass murder shouldn't the number be small? Mikami still has at least twenty years of life left.

Mikami stared back at Beyond, his innocent eyes looking somewhat frightened. Mikami did not understand why the detective thought that he was Kira. There was never an instance Mikami had ever had the supremacy to influence or judge criminals, even as a lawyer the only way to get the criminal arrested was if the criminal was too poor to buy their way out of the case. It was true, Mikami wished he had this power and greatly praised Kira for his work but he was not Kira!

Beyond grabbed his phone to make a call; his phone was off. After pressuring the top button for several seconds, a noise sounded and a message appeared. It appeared L had sent him the message several minutes ago.

_Message sent 2:23a.m. Number unknown._

_'How do you foresee the handling of your situation after Smile's death?'_

That was a valid question, too bad Smile was not dead so it did not matter. Beyond considered the question for a moment before responding. By the time he had finished considering the question, he and Mikami had walked back to the building Smile owned and several hours had passed.

_Message sent 9:00a.m. Number unknown._

_'Can my suspect and I temporally join your investigation team?'_

_Message sent 9:10a.m. Number unknown._

_'The location the investigators are moving to is attached to this text message in address book format.'

* * *

_

After sending the message L sat down his phone, it was time to wake up Raito but every time he looked at the teen his thoughts became jumbled.

Could the same lips that form that sleeping smile really spew out lies at every waking moment? That deceitful smile, why did it have to seem so familiar and affable? L remembered the sight he saw, the one he ignored before dazing off to a blissful rest, the smiler's eyes were a bloody color of red which served to enhance the power of that trickster's smile.

That smile and piercing red eyes were like a dream and a nightmare that made L perturbed. Stupid Kira, with the stupid ability to control emotions, how could he so easily cause a reaction from L? Was killing his only friend not enough? Now Kira had realized that even in the face of death L would not react excessively and thus the murder had to use a different plan of action by making L have hallucinations.

His reasoning was flawed, of course, Kira had up till now showed no ability to make hallucinations but L would not admit to having a dream of such unceremonious nature.

Changing the course of his thoughts, L began to compute the many aspects of the Kira case. How many criminals die each day? Is there any fluctuation in this number? Are the criminals more of one type or where thieves, murderers, rapists, and terrorists all dying at the same speed? Was Ratio-kun Kira? Is he still Kira?

Perceiving the teen as a criminal was difficult, even when the teen was locked up Raito's eyes never looked innocent but they never held the blood guilt of a murder. The way the boy spoke in a half joking manner that could barley be taken seriously, was identical to how Smile acted in their text message conversations.

He was thinking about Raito again, how had his thoughts come full circle?

L's eyes glared at the sleeping boy. Raito looked just as unsettling with his eyes closed and his body for the most part unconscious than when he was awake. At the moment, Raito could not be Kira. He could not now find out the names and faces of the criminals that were dying but L could not decide whether or not he had been Kira in the past. The boy he was glaring at awoke under the stare and sat up with an exaggerated yawn.

"We are moving to the new location once we shower" L said.

"What do you mean after 'we' shower?" Raito exclaimed at the thought.

"Don't worry we will do that separately and remove the chain."

"Malpractice" Raito said just loud enough for L to hear.

The two completed the showering and then left to the new headquarters that L had built. In front of the building, Beyond sat in a bench in a way that mirrored L's sitting style and Mikami sat chained to a pole. The chain was not the same as the handcuffs that L had used to imprison Raito; instead the chain was thin almost like a chain that would used to tie a disobedient dog.

"He obviously has not lost his touch at destroying a person emotionally" L remarked since he knew Raito would not know what he was talking about. Beside him, Raito had to restrain himself from laughing at the joke that very few people would know about B.

The four united to walk into the recently constructed edifice. After going through an assortment of security procedures, they reached a large room filled with the glaring screens of computers and chairs cushioned comfortably. It was obvious the room was where most of the investigation would be held.

"Kira killing case castle" Beyond said in English so the rhythm would be obvious.

It would be another hour until the rest of the investigators arrived one by one. Everyone seemed distressed by the new location but they only showed it through the anxious expressions that occupied their faces.

Deciding to get a snack while working, Raito asked L where he could find such an item.

"There is no eating while working", L said and took a spoonful of cake to shove into his mouth.

Watari, despite L's objective, overheard Raito's question and brought a small bag of chips. After opening it, Raito flung a couple chips at L. The black haired detective's hair caught the projectile.

Beyond glanced over and then smiled in his eerie way. Noticing the smile, L looked over at the other detective in order to discover the reason for such amusement. The red and black haired detective pointed at the plain black hair that L possessed.

Reaching up to the spot pointed to, L ran his hand through his hair. Surprisingly, the amusement of Beyond seemed to have also became the pleasure of Raito as well especially when L's hand's motion resulted in a crackle of noise as the chips crunched into trillions of little pieces.

Realizing the situation, L tugged on his left arm and forced Raito to fall out of his seat.

Matsuda interrupted the games to point out an actual part of the Kira case. "Ryuuzaki, someone other than criminals has dyed and the death is being attributed to Kira." Matsuda's comment caught everyone's attention.

* * *

Chill out whatcha yelling for?  
Lay back, it's all been done before  
And if you could only let it be  
You will see

Somebody else round everyone else  
You're watching your back, like you can't relax  
You're trying to be cool, you look like a fool to me  
Tell me

Why you have to go and make things so complicated?  
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me frustrated  
Life's like this you  
and You fall and you crawl and you break  
and you take what you get and you turn it into  
honesty  
promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it  
no no


	16. Chapter 16

Sayu looked down at the page she had wrote the name on. She remembered something and then wrote down her brother's name, 'Yagami Raito' and the time of midnight. **Just Kidding! Did I freak out all the wonderful readers?  
**

**Author's note: My midterms were this week so my update was late, _again_. Oh and in this chapter the reference to communism is just a joke, I am not saying any thing bad or good about it so don't be offended in any way.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own "OneRepublic" the lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 16

_Dear Diary,_

_Writing this seems foolish. This is supposed to consist of a note to myself, I should not have written it in the form of a diary. As I compose this I have to pay careful attention to what items my memory will be lacking after I lose possession of the Death Note._

_Today, I met Ryuk. He is the shinigami the Death Note belongs to. Only humans that touch his Death Note are able to see Ryuk, according to him at least, but he hasn't been the most reliable source of information. From the conversations I had with Ryuk, he seems to have no more knowledge about the Death Note than myself. I have considered the possibility also that he is withholding information from me._

_Understanding the reasons why I disregarded that theory are found in my original encounter with the god of death, which I will precede to detail._

_It has been slightly over a week since I started killing. Although the Death Note contained the information about a shinigami that supposedly the Death Note belonged to, I had disregarded the information because of the expanse of time that had passed without a visit from such a creature._

_Today, when he appeared I must admit I let out a scream of terror. The creature was unexpected and appeared so inhuman. Reasoning on the situation now, the scream seems so womanish. I did not expect the shinigami to knock on the door asking for tea and crumpets before revealing themselves to be a shinigami, but it still shocked me when he appeared so suddenly._

_"You seem to be enjoying it." He had said, or something to that effect. My terror was too great to recall the situation well. "I'm Ryuk, the shinigami, who dropped that notebook."_

_"I'm not shocked Ryuk. I have been-" I could not complete my statement because I stood up and accidently knocked over my chair which hit into the desk spilling the overfull cup of coffee across the Death Note. Now he's going to kill me if wasn't already going to, I thought._

_Ryuk started to laugh at me and then began to look at the Death Note and speak about how many names I had written._

_"What'll happen to me? Will you take my soul?" I interrupted him with the questions._

_"What's that about? Some fantasy you human's came up with? I am not going to do anything to you. Once a Death Note lands in the human world it belongs to the human world. In other words, that belongs to you. If you don't want it, give it to someone else but all memory of the Death Note will be erased from your mind." His statement is why I began to write this._

_I began to ask him questions about the consequences and what he wanted. Everything he said would not interfere with the plan I had built up to create a new world without crime but one thing he said bothered me. I asked him why he had dropped the Death Note in the human world._

_"Because I was bored" he replied. That is the reason I know he is not holding any information back from me, he does not seem to care what will happen._

_DELETE XOXO_

Sayu stared at the page she had just read. It would have been of much benefit to read the diary before talking to the manipulative shinigami. Turning her head away from the pages, Sayu searched for Ryuk. He had left without doing anything except eating all of her apples and tricking her into becoming a murder.

The realization came to her at that moment. She is a murder. She is a Kira. Sayu flipped over to the page of the diary that Ryuk had asked her to write the name on. With the sharp tip of her pen she had pierced the heart of an innocent person and in doing so had become something that she hated. Would she be arrested for her actions?

Thoughtfully, Sayu stared at the page. Her brother was Smile, he would help her prove that she was forced into killing, wouldn't he? What if Raito did not believe her? The thought of her brother thinking of her as a criminal and convicting her of the grave and disgusting crime of murder made tears begin to swell in Sayu's eyes. It was all her fault, she should have known better than to listen to what a god of death told her to do.

Sayu wished her brother or father was here to comfort her, all that she had now was her distraught mother. No one would believe her. It would be best if she just saved everyone the trouble of sending her to her death bed and wrote her own name on the fatal page. Staring at the space underneath the name she had earlier written, Sayu made a determined choice and began to write her name.

'Yagami Say' She could not finish the name but wrote the wrong letter at the end so the name would look correct and merely misspelled.

'Yagami Sa' Sayu began to cry and her tears washed the lettering of the name. Blindly, Sayu lashed her pen in the motion of the last part of her name but the letters fell in-between her first and last name causing it to once again be misspelled.

'Yogami Sayu' The name was written so quickly Sayu did not realize her mistake at first. After realizing forty seconds later that she had not died, Sayu looked down at the page and noticed the misspelling.

With her head resting in her arm, Sayu tried once more to write out the letters but they were more jumbled than the last three times.

Throwing the diary across the room, Sayu felt the cool tears roll down her cheeks. She wished she was more like her brother in being able to control her emotions, and in being intelligent enough to not let something like this happen. Sayu collapsed dramatically into her bed and starred at the blue diary that stood against the wall in far edge of the room. She looked at her failed attempt at committing suicide.

Sayu was glad she had never gotten her entire name out; it would have been unfortunate if she died. She had never even checked on the internet to see if she had really killed the individual she wrote down the name of.

Now was the best time to check the validity of the statement made in the diary about certain pages being parts of a 'Death Note' that killed people. Walking over to her computer, Sayu opened an internet browser and typed in the name Hideki Ryuga. He had been one of Sayu's favorite celebrities but she was no longer searching the internet for what shows and concerts he was going to be in.

The page of the Death Note that was placed inside the diary was without a doubt real.

* * *

"What would be the motive behind killing a pop celebrity?" Beyond asked Smile, who was currently staring at pages of scrolling information on a laptop screen.

Surprisingly, L replied to the question. "Celebrity news often exhausts and engulfs television stations, causing them to neglect criminal activity in broadcasts."

This explanation made sense but Raito could not help but think that the real reason that Hideki Ryuga had died was for Rem to convey a message. Sayu was obsessed with him and thus killing him would be a representation of the how easy it would be for the shinigami to kill Raito's sister.

Raito turned to the computer and began to look for any other deaths that may be related to the fact that someone from the celebrity class of people had died. There was a slight possibility that the Death Note, which Raito knew Rem had given to someone, had fallen into the hands of someone that wanted to kill celebrities silently along with killing criminals.

Twisting his fingers across the keyboard, Raito pulled up a list of the criminals and other causalities being blamed on the notorious Kira. Everyone else on the list had committed crimes of serious or minor nature. There were multiple murders, rapists and terrorists as well as a few thieves and one or two tax evaders. The tax evading part was slightly off so Raito did a search for any more money related crimes.

When nothing came up Raito was disappointed, maybe he would have to wait until more people died to prove that there was a new Kira targeting different groups of people. He needed to find out who was doing the killings eventually so that L would see the rules in the Death Note that would prove Misa innocent and stop Rem from completing assassination of Raito and his family.

Raito looked at L, who was staring at him with an accusing face. Wondering how L would react when he found out how wrong he really was caused Raito to smile at the black haired detective. L turned away from Raito to look at the computer which had reverted to an L filled screen saver, making how long he had been staring obvious.

After trying to stifle his amusement to several seconds, Raito let out a light snort at the other detective. "You seem focused. Does your screen saver provide insight into the case?"

"I have been focused on studying a Kira suspect." L said in a dismissing manner, but his manner did not seem to dismiss Raito's further inquiries.

"I believe you were studying but not in a suspecting way." Replying a joking tone, Raito turned his chair so that he would be facing L.

"Sorry if I bothered you Kira-kun." L seemed irritated by the joking although, within his serene and emotionless way of speaking, the irritation was inaudible to most people.

"Why don't you say Raito like that?" Raito said in reference to the way that L had said 'Kira' with the hint of emotion.

"Like what exactly?" Resisting the urge to smile at the jokes, L asked a question he already knew the answer to.

"With emotion, say it with that irritation like how you say Kira-kun."

"Wanting to see emotion seems like something Kira would want, Raito-kun."

"Great! That type of emotion sounds much better when you say my name."

"Raito-kun makes me feel uncomfortable wanting to hear his name with emotion and being chained to me."

"You're the one that chained me to yourself."

"I think B expressed a good reason for that."

Raito thought about that statement for a moment, hadn't Beyond said that Raito was a good 'charm bracelet'. Was L saying something like that as flirtation of some sort? The other detective was so odd. After meeting L in person, Raito would have never thought he would be someone that enjoyed joking around with potential murder. Maybe it was because Raito was still Smile. Despite the lack of title, the persona of Raito was the same one that L was comfortable talking to on the phone and in emails.

Turning back to the computer, Raito opened an Office Outlook document to compose an email to Sayu. He needed to distract himself from the Kira case and his thoughts.

_'From: Raito'_

_'How are you doing Sayu? I have not been able to talk to you since the day at the hospital. How is mom coping? I hope you both are doing well. Kira will be caught soon, and you two will both be safe, I promise. Be careful.'_

Minimizing the messaging screen, Raito opened another window and once again checked the list of Kira killings. Another business person had died; this one was not even known for being a criminal in any way. Maybe it was unrelated to the Kira case but Raito doubted this, all three of them had been killed on the same day of the week.

Whoever the new Kira was had completed these killings. Raito wonder what the motive to killing these men had been; the new Kira obviously did not actually have the goal of creating a crime free utopia.

L made a sigh next to Raito, it was then that Raito realized how close the detective was to him and it caused Raito to jump slightly.

"Is the great Kira afraid of me?" L said after the way Raito jumped.

"Fear, that's an interesting word. Do I fear you? Not necessarily. Do I fear for you? Possibly."

"You can not confuse me."

"If you were not confused you would not have said that."

"Raito-kun needs to focus on the case."

Raito ran his index finger along the chain that connected the older detective to him. "You also seem to lack focus. Is it not being use to this close of contact?" As Raito said the words, he moved his finger along the chain and thus closer to L until it forced him to relocate the chair in order to reach L's wrist. Withdrawing his finger as soon as it reached its destination, Raito looked at L to see the reaction.

Staring at the teen, L felt incredibly discomfited. Kira's new ability to create emotion needed to be thoroughly investigated. How could he feel gauche from Raito's annoying actions? In the past, L had absolutely no sense of social unease; he never wears shoes, puts way too much sugar in everything, and sits in an odd position without any problems with awkwardness but not he felt awkward. Raito reminded L too much of the late detective Smile by his way speaking and acting just to bother him.

It was certain that the teenage boy beside him had a lead on the case by the way he had been looking at the computer screen, L could not say he had anything near a lead except his opinion that Raito was at one time Kira. L needed to work more intently on the case but with no leads he was beginning to feel somewhat depressed with his findings. It might be best to just ask Raito what he had found out about the case, it was a small defeat but it was necessary.

"Raito-kun, did you find out something about the case?" L inquired.

Raito moved the chair back towards the computer and opened the list of financial businessmen that had died of heart attacks. "After we found out that someone other than a criminal may have been killed by Kira, I searched for any other odd heart attacks that showed any patterns. Look at this."

Leisurely, L progressed towards the computer Raito was at. He had been correct; it did appear that there was some type of correlation between Kira and the deaths of these people. It was as if Kira was trying to eliminate certain business people for some type of goal.

"I knew Kira had a god complex but I didn't know he was Marxist too." Raito said with a joking tone but then changed his voice to be slightly more serious as he spoke his actual thoughts. "I compared the deaths to the stock market it appears all the deaths have caused Yotsuba's stock price to rise and other companies to fall. Looking back at other records, they seem to show the same pattern."

"If this is true then Kira's true intent is not punishing criminals." L stared at the computer screen with the information Raito had found. He had discovered a vital piece of evidence in the case that L had overlooked, in the past the only person who had been able to do that was Smile. For a moment L hoped Raito was not Kira, he was the first person other than the deceased who had been able to think on a level near L's own level of thought.

* * *

Do you think I'm special, do you think I'm nice  
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces  
Between the noise you hear and the sound you like  
Are we just sinking in the ocean of faces  
It can't be possible, the rain can fall  
Only when it's over our heads  
The sun is shining everyday but its far away  
Over the world they said, they got  
They got all the right friends in all the right places


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's note: Originally this this fic was not going to include Wedy and Aiber but I had this crazy idea of Wendy walking in and knowing Smile and B. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the lyrics (does anyone know what the lyrics are from? My friend sent them to me).  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 17

_The precautions had been set up faultlessly, as all the other operations she had completed. No one was going to be in the bank and she could easily remove the documents she had been hired to remove. Turning to the camera that stared right towards her pale face and dark sunglasses, the blonde women grinned and even waved imprudently. _

_Waving and smiling at the camera served no purpose, the camera had been set to loop the image of an empty bank and give the appearance of an empty bank. It was quite an achievement to break into this particular bank on this night, this bank often boasted of its wondrous security system. That was one of the two reasons the people that enlisted her services as a burglar had chosen her to retrieve the files, she could break through any security system._

_Walking lazily around the dark building, she decided to take the stairs rather than go through the trouble of using the elevator. The pale light above the staircase made her body eliminated. Her clothing was not the typical garment chosen to rob a bank in, it was a basic gray skirt-suit not a black thievery uniform with full body spandex and a ski mask._

_Finally, she arrived at the rustic steal safe-door that opened to reveal ten rows of drawers that filled half of this story of the building. A noise caught her attention. It was probably nothing; no one was supposed to be here. Again the noise sounded, it was whispering its tune erratically. As she walked back farther in the rows of drawers the noise drew more constant. "46, 47, 48, 49, 50! Ready or not here I come."_

_Stunned by the realization that someone was in here, the blonde women realized there was also probably a meaning of the words. The person had been counting and then said a peculiar phrase. What did that phrase mean? It sounded loosely familiar. 'Ready or not here I come' is a phrase used when a child is playing hide and seek. That meant that there was definitely more than one individual within this enclosed area. _

_In an attempt to walk forward, the woman grazed her foot forward and was surprised as it hit into an obstacle and she fell forward. Glancing back to see what had caused the fall; she spotted a shoe that was attached to a person with red eyes. It was the devil, she knew it was. Who else could the person be?_

_After all her wrongdoings the little demon had came to make her suffer for her sin. There was no other way that the women could think of for why the individual would be present. "How did you get in here?" She asked meekly. _

_"Hush! You already made enough noise, he'll find me" the voice said with a hint of worry. _

_"You are playing hide and seek?" She asked for clarification. _

_Before they could respond another person stepped out from behind the edge of the row of drawers. She could barely see the individual but his shining teeth and mocking smile illuminated the darkened space causing her to stare from the ground where she was still situated. "I won, but I think I have to thank Mary Kenwood for that." The smiler said. _

_Wedy stared at the person in shock, they knew her real name. Even the criminals that knew her very well only knew her by her thief name: Wedy. In an attempt to disguise the fact that he had uttered her name she was about to ask who he had been speaking about until, a flash erupted from the smiler's hand. He had been holding a camera. _

_Blinded by the flash of light, Wendy tried to clear her eyes but by the time she had done so the two had left and the only reminder of their presence was a note that was in the safety deposit box that Wendy was supposed to receive the documents from. _

_'You have encountered the wonderful services of Smile and B, your welcome. Have a great day!' Wedy stared at the note. She could only assume that Smile was the great detective Smile and was the same boy with the smile that had illuminated the room. B was probably an assistant and the demon with the red eyes.

* * *

_

Sayu had finally calmed down to an extent. Her desk had swelled slightly from the water of the tears that had fallen upon it but she had finally came to the conclusion that it was not her fault that she had killed the innocent star that she enjoyed so much.

The computer screen that had gone to sleep after a period of inactivity blinked to life with the herald of a new message in her email inbox. Forcing herself to not reveal any unnecessary information, Sayu composed a message in response to the email that she found to be from her brother. All he asked was for her welfare and the welfare of their mother; she did not want to tell him anything negative on the subject so she typed a fastidious response.

_'From: Sayu'_

_'I am fine as is mom. I wish I could say the same of my brother but I find that he has separated himself from me and I do not know of his welfare. Do you know of him?'_

As she watched the screen, the banner displaying zero unread messages changed to a taunting one unread message. Sayu quickly clicked to read the response; she hoped that Raito was able to detect the sorrow in the way in which she wrote the email.

_'From: Ratio'_

_'This message is not from Raito. He has fallen asleep in front of the computer. When I saw that you had typed a message to him, I attempted to rouse him but all he did was open his mouth so saliva would fall on the keyboard. Since I know I am typing on that keyboard, it is quite unsettling to think about. I felt based on your email that it was imperative to learn of Raito's condition. He is fine, he still is smiling his evil smile at every moment, even as he sleeps he smiles.'_

Gazing at the email, Sayu understood who it had come from. She had received an email from L. Quickly, Sayu typed a response.

_'From: Sayu'_

_'L, there is something you need to know. Raito probably thinks it will do more harm than good to share the knowledge but I disagree.' _

Sayu glanced around the room to ensure the shinigami would not see the next message she would type. The shinigami was not around, which was good, it was better for the thing to be gone than to be here making trouble for her and the rest of humanity.

Glancing at the clock, Sayu noticed that the time had already reached around six in the morning and she had yet to get any type of rest. She knew that Raito would not want her staying up worried about him and about the Kira case but he did not know how directly involved she was now.

Sachiko knocked lightly on Sayu's door and came inside. "Sayu, why have you had your light on all night? Have you been awake all this time?" She asked before sitting on the edge of Sayu's bed. The condition of the bed answered the question, the bed was neat and Sayu never fixed her bed after sleeping.

"Yes I have been awake," Sayu said and watched her mother's eyes study her.

"Is it dreams or anxiety?" Sachiko asked.

"It is hard to say, I can barley tell what is reality anymore." It was difficult to even ponder the idea of reality being finite after meeting a shinigami and killing an idol writing down their name in a notebook.

* * *

Drinking another cup of coffee, Matsuda watched Misa Misa as she spoke to the press about her feelings after the death of the co-star in the movie they had been filming. It was tiresome to wake up so early in the morning just to hear Misa talk about Raito and then whine about how mean Ryuuzaki is but this was his assignment. The only hope he had was with Raito's new findings about Kira, maybe they would bring him a new opportunity for assignments.

Once the model was done voicing her planned reaction, she walked over to Matsuda and began to talk about the movie's continuation. Matsuda wondered if the girl realized he was not paying any attention to her. He may not be as intelligent as L and Raito but he still found it difficult to communicate with Misa in a conversation.

After Misa completed a few more interviews and such, she and Matsuda began the walk back to the building Ryuuzaki had built.

As they approached, Ukita and Mogi were entering the building as well. They seemed perturbed for some reason, Matsuda wondered what had occurred. He was sure that if he hurried along he could hear what happened while they told Ryuuzaki about it.

Once Matsuda left Misa at the floor Mikami and she were sharing, he entered the main investigation room where Mogi and Ukita were speaking about what had happened while they were conversing with the head of the police. Everyone in the room was focused on what they were saying; it was definitely not something of positive nature.

"The police have begun to support Kira; he has threatened to begin killing politicians if they continue to chase him." Ukita told the task force sullenly. "Mogi has already made up his mind but, Aizawa and Matsuda if you really still want to pursue Kira turn in your letters of resignation to me. We cannot pursue Kira anymore unless you quit the police force."

Before Aizawa and Matsuda could respond to the news, L interrupted their thoughts by instructing them to remain police officers. L told them that he would visit them at the police department and bring Kira's head as a gift for them. Even if the small force left he would still have Beyond and Raito, who were the only two that had actually made any findings for the Kira case.

Matsuda, Mogi, and Ukita wanted to stay and help to catch Kira but Aizawa began to become indecisive and was unsure as to whether he could quit the police force. If Soichiro was still on the force it would have probably made the choice simpler because he would understand the need to support the family during and after the investigation.

While Aizawa was trying to come to a final decision, a W appeared on the computer screens and Watari began to talk. "You entrusted me to make preparations so that every member of the task force and their families would be financially secure no matter what happened to them including if they were fired from the police force. Why aren't you telling them that?"

L stared at the computer for a moment, almost glaring at the W. "Watch what you say, Watari."

Aizawa become outraged at the fact that L had secured money already and was merely testing him to see what his reaction would have been in a situation where he had to choose between working on the case and caring financially for his family.

After he stormed outside of the building, the Kira task force began their work once again.

Raito checked his email and was surprised to find one message he had never seen that had been responded to. He had never read the message that Sayu had sent him, how was it possible that he replied to it? As he thought over these things, a message from Sayu arrived. The email was addressed to L.

Sometime during the night, L had sent a message to Sayu. Raito was upset at this invasion of his emails but felt that it was necessary for the detective to check the emails of a Kira suspect to ensure the computer was not the source of the heat attack causing power. Reading the message, Raito felt upset at Sayu. Was she honestly planning on telling L the truth?

The email needed a response but Raito could not decide how to respond. In a whimsical and deceitful decision, Raito began to type an email that was would appear to be from L.

_'From: Raito'_

_'I am still not really Raito but I am sure you are already aware of that. Do not concern yourself with telling me things about Raito-kun. Raito already tells me everything; people do not hold information back from their lovers. '_

Raito could not hold back an amused smile as he sent the message, it was comical. He could tell L was staring at him and trying to detect the reason behind the smile but Raito just smiled more at the detective's prying gaze. Before L actually asked Raito what he found so amusing, Ukita informed them of a finding he had made. Apparently, Kira's business related killings were concentrated around Fridays.

"Is Kira part of Yotsuba or using Yotsuba? I haven't figured it out yet but let's investigate this with the assumption that it is Kira's doing." L stated as Beyond brought forward a complied list of Yotsuba's domestic employees. As Beyond set down the colossal pile of papers, he purposely slanted them so that all of the papers would fall in front of Raito. When the papers finally fell, Raito cursed under breath in a language only Beyond knew.

Matsuda tried to help Raito pick up the papers but only made himself more of a nuisance. No one would actually call Matsuda a nuisance but he could tell there was nothing he was being assigned to do in order to help the case. "Ryuuzaki, is there something I can do besides being a manager?" Matsuda requested.

"If you want to be more helpful you can acquire some coffee for me," L said blandly.

"Is everything that comes out of your mouth that caustic?" Raito asked after L said this to Matsuda.

"Fine, if he wishes to help he can instead get coffee for the guests," L told Matsuda and pointed indistinctly toward a seat where a blonde man and women were seated.

"Who are they? When did they get in?" Ukita asked when he saw them. As he said this, the two stood up and looked towards the investigators.

"I'm Aiber a con-man pleased to meet you," the man said.

"Wedy, I am a thief by trade," the women said and then suddenly seemed to lose composure and stumble back a few steps. "What the hell? That demon is in here!" Wedy shouted and pointed at Beyond, who had been standing beside Raito.

Everyone, except Smile and Beyond, seemed slightly confused. "What do you mean?" Beyond said venomously.

"It is B, the guy that works with Smile! Is Smile in here too?" She began to look around at people's faces to try to spot the smile that had engraved itself into her memory.

Raito forced himself not to smile at the situation.

Mogi, who seemed to be ignoring the Wedy, turned towards L. "We are working with criminals?" Mogi inquired.

"Yes, but not the type that would surface and be killed by Kira," L said and then turned to begin working of the computer again. His return to work signaled that everyone else should be doing the same.

* * *

I never really know  
A killer from a savior  
'Til I break at the bend  
We're here and now, but will we ever be again  
'Cause I have found  
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade  
Away again  
It's too far away for me to hold


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's note: Sorry for the super long delay. :( Forgive me?  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the lyrics. But once I rule the world I will.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 18

L toggled the screen excessively in an effort to have one of the documents actually captivate his attention. Regardless of how many times he altered the screen the words his mind read were not the same words that stretched across the computer screen. All L's mind saw were the repetition of the words Wedy had said, 'Is Smile in here too?' Smile, why did Wedy have to mention that name? L, for the sole reason of the thief mentioning the late detective, regretted enlisting the services of Wedy and Aiber.

Did the reference to the detective imply that Wedy had actually seen Smile in person? Glancing at the once hysterical thief who had settled down on the other side of the room, L wondered if he could ask her what Smile had looked like. He decided against it, it did not matter now anyways. L would never get the chance to see Smile with his own eyes and know if he really lived up to his pseudonym.

L slid out his cell phone and opened a passcode blocked folder that held all his text messages from Smile. Since the announcement of Smile's death, L had begun to reread all of them in order to try to piece together who the detective had been. The list of texts was expansive; L had collected the messages since the first time Smile sent him a text up until the messages from Beyond. Saddened by this reminiscence of the time he had spent talking to Smile; L put the phone away and turned back to the computer screen.

In order to stop thinking about Smile, L focused on something else that Wedy had said. She had called Beyond a demon. It was improbable to think she knew of the horrendous murders that Beyond had committed so her accusation must have steamed from something other than his actual actions.

Thinking about reasons for calling Beyond such a name, L decided the most reasonable explanation must be his eye color. The typical stereotype of a demonic creature is someone with red eyes and Beyond's eyes are such a color.

This explanation made sense but it also brought to mind an occurrence a few days earlier. L had seen Raito's eyes as he woke up and they also gave the impression of being of a reddish shade. It seemed impossible for L to know two people with such an improbable eye color unless the two cases were related. Before he could make any decisions as far as how such a coincidence was possible, L had to confirm the fact that Raito's eyes were red.

Turning towards Raito, L noticed that the boy was conversing with Beyond through mouthed words. Such a conversation might be proof of Raito's involvement as Kira or it could mean that Raito knew Beyond, it could mean that Raito was Smile. The evidence for this possibility was being amplified continuously.

At same time Smile stopped contacting L, Raito was put in confinement. The brunette teen seemed to be familiar with and have similar physical characteristics to Beyond. Both the supposedly deceased detective and Raito had a lax manner of dealing matters. Raito had a smile that affected something in L's emotions. The teen seemed to look away when the only person that had seen Smile's face was looking for the late detective.

While Beyond and Raito continued the barely audible conversation, L inched his chair closer to where Raito was. Beyond seemed to detect the gradual closeness of the black haired detective and ended the exchange. Turning towards his work space, Raito seemed to not notice or simply disregard L's staring.

L scooted his chair even closer to the teen until the point where Raito's face was only a few inches from his own.

"How did you plan on using the two criminals to help infiltrate Yotsuba?" Apparently, he had noticed that L moving closer. "L?" Raito asked after not receiving an immediate response.

"Pardon me Raito-kun, I was not paying attention. I was attempting to find out something for the case."

"Were you able to find out that something?" Raito said and turned to look at L.

"Yes, Raito-kun does have red eyes. They appear brown in the light unless you look at them carefully."

"That is interesting L. Were you staring at me to find that out or did you find that out by staring for no reason?"

While L was beginning to say something in response to this question, Mogi said something at the other side of the room that roused L's attention. "Where did B go?"

A dread arose in L's eyes as he looked around in the room and in the camera views for Beyond. No matter how much Smile had trusted him, L would never trust Beyond with the horrible images of the murders Beyond had committed flashing in his mind. Taking into consideration the possibilities of where Beyond had gone, L became anxious and panicked mentally.

"I think he just left to go with Matsuda and Misa," Ukita responded to Mogi's question. The two did not seem concerned by Beyond being missing, why would they? They had no reason to think that Beyond was secretly a criminal that had murdered people but never been convicted.

* * *

The director had decided on the replacement for Misa's co-star in the upcoming movie. It was ironic that they had chosen a person that had a criminal record after the last star had been killed by Kira. Matsuda watched as Misa acted out her part for a movie.

Seeing a movie when it is actually being made always sounded like an enjoyable experience to him but with Misa on the set it was terribly annoying. As the girl whined to her director about something, Matsuda surveyed the area. His searching gaze stopped at a soaring structure of glass windows. This large building was something he had seen before, it was Yotsuba's headquarters.

Furthermore, it was Friday and Matsuda specifically remembered that Ukita discovered that killings were concentrated on this day of the week. Matsuda knew the time would come for him to help out the case in more ways than just watching over Misa and he was sure this was the time he had been waiting for. In an act of exaggerated fervor, Matsuda threw a cup of coffee he had been drinking to the ground and began to dash towards the building's entrance.

Prior to him reaching the building his nerves began to act up, could the person to the left or right of him be Kira at this very moment? Matsuda experienced an internal conflict as to whether or not he should actually enter the building but still acting on spur of the moment impulses, he entered.

Crawling past the fairly weak security consisting of a single elderly guard, Matsuda made his way into the main lobby. Behind him, he heard the door open again and he quickly ran towards a space that would conceal his presence. Around the opposite side of the room he could hear two individuals speaking in hushed whispers. The words were regarding a secret meeting that was being held.

Deciding to follow them, Matsuda charged towards the elevator. Once he reached it, Matsuda stood straight and acted as if he was supposed to be in the business setting. The elevator doors closed just as a shadow of a man was beginning to approach him. Matsuda hoped whoever the man had been would not be any hindrance to the investigation of the secret meeting.

Matsuda reached the floor that the men had been headed to. Behind a closed door he could hear a series of voices; this could possibly be the meeting. Matsuda leaned closer to the door and once he overheard the word Kira, he pressed his ear entirely against the door. Abruptly, a shadow fell from behind him and Matsuda reluctantly turned to look at whoever might have caught him.

"Super spy tactics Matsuda! Take the elevator in the open were everyone could see your face then listen to someone that can possibly kill you without having to be anywhere near you by pressing your ear against a door," Beyond said with a sarcastically amazed tone.

"They mentioned Kira," Matsuda quickly said in an inept attempt to excuse his actions.

"Just be glad Kira's the murder and not me," Beyond said and then muttered something else under breath that Matsuda could not understand. It almost sounded like he said 'this time' but Matsuda knew that could not make sense in that context.

Before Matsuda could ask the many foolish questions forming in his mind, the door of the room that had been discussing Kira swung open. In shock, Matsuda stumbled backwards but Beyond seemed merely amused. It must come from being on the Smiling side of justice.

"What are you doing here?" A man behind the door demanded, the man whose name above his head had no numbers.

Beyond complied a mental list of the problems involved in this situation. Higuchi Kyosuke was Kira, Kira could kill them at any moment if he had the eyes, Beyond was with Matsuda who would not prove to be helpful, and on the way up the stairs he could not find a kitchen in this place to steal any jam from. Why break into a building if it does not even have a decent kitchen?

Beside Beyond, Matsuda thought of ways he could excuse the situation. He knew he had to be the one to give the excuse, in order to gain some type of leverage over B informing L of the situation they were currently in. Another one of his brilliant ideas came to him and he spoke up.

"We are here to see if you might be interested in using Misa Misa spokesperson for your company," Matsuda's words were mumbled and nervous but they had a relaxing effect on Higuchi. He probably had assumed Matsuda was not with the police since only someone like the model Misa would hire a person like Matsuda.

Glaring towards Matsuda, Beyond already knew what the next question from Kira-3 would be and almost grinned when the man finally asked it. Higuchi asked them why they do not Misa with them. Once again, Matsuda spoke up and mentioned the movie that Misa was filming. Beyond was actually surprised at how well formulated the excuse was, until he realized that Matsuda was just the truth.

"He is lying," Beyond finally said. He then received surprised glances from both Matsuda and Higuchi. Reaching into his pocket, Beyond pulled out an official police badge for a criminal psychologist. "Matsui here is not Misa's manager but he is a patient with a disorder. He snuck into your building and heard about a secret meeting. With his childish mentality he wanted to spy on the meeting."

Something flashed through Higuchi's eyes and seemed to soften his entire face. "My mother had a mental problem too; I understand how people like him can sometimes act." With those words Beyond saw an opportunity and turned the conversation to Kira.

"What is truly sad is as a criminal psychologist I often evaluate the mental health of criminals and almost all the criminals that the idealist 'Kira' has killed have been people with disorders." Beyond's words caused the man's eyes to widen and a certain pain to pass through his eyes. By playing with the man's empathy, Beyond had made him think he had killed his mother over and over again through his actions as Kira.

"I need to return to my meeting but I hope all goes well with Matsui," the man said sullenly. Beyond nodded and waited for the door of the room to close, then he gestured for Matsuda to come with him.

In a befuddled manner, Matsuda followed and seemed to be pretending to act more foolish after being labeled by Beyond as a victim of a mental disorder. Questions began to tug at Matsuda's feeble and attention deficit mind as Beyond led them towards the elevator. Inside the realm of the elevator, Matsuda let one of the questions out. "Do you think he believed you?" Beyond pondered the question by staring at the ceiling for a moment.

"I am not sure. Would you keep quiet if I went back and killed him?" Matsuda was shocked at the question. B was joking, right? He could not be serious about such a question, a proposition like this was outlandish. It was probably only asked for rhetorical value. Deciding not to respond, Matsuda began the decent down the elevator by pressing the lobby button.

As he pressed the button, he heard B mumbling something about his numbers being so expansive because of such an attitude. Matsuda wished he was intelligent enough to know what B meant by 'numbers'. There were no numbers that Matsuda had and if he did he did not know anything about how expansive they are.

* * *

"Just try to get some rest Sayu; I will stay right here to make sure you can get to sleep. Does that sound good?" Sachiko said in a soothing tone.

Reluctantly, Sayu complied with what her mother had requested and laid down on her bed next to where her mother was seated. Sachiko began to hum a Japanese hymn to her. Surprisingly enough, Sayu was quick to nod off into a blissful state of rest as her mother hummed.

Sachiko smiled at the sleeping girl. It would not be much longer until Sayu was as old as Raito and could no longer be comforted by a soothing tone and a peaceful lullaby. Sayu had always been such a sweet young girl and she, unlike her brother, was a conformist. At least Sachiko knew the reason Raito was so strange was his genes not her parenting because Sayu had turned out normal.

Sayu had friends and rarely felt the need to hide anything from Sachiko but throughout Raito's youth he had always been hiding something. Now, after her husband's death, it seemed that even Sayu was blocking her mother from the problems that where bothering her.

Standing up from the bed, Sachiko tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. Maybe she could call Raito and see how he was doing; it had been days since she had heard his voice. His voice always sounded so stern and caring like Soichiro's had. Sachiko was called away from her musing when Sayu's computer made a noise.

Technical things never seemed to be something Sachiko was good at but she was pretty sure Sayu had received a new email message from Raito. The prospect of reading a message sent from her son made Sachiko joyful. With a motherly smile, Sachiko clicked several buttons on the keyboard until she realized she had to use the 'mouse' to be able to open the window and view the new message. The first few lines startled her.

_'I am still not really Raito but I am sure you are already aware of that.' _

Who was Sayu communicating with over the online-internet thing if it was not Raito? Sachiko's eyes trailed the rest of the words on the computer screen.

_'Do not concern yourself with telling me things about Raito-kun. Raito already tells me everything; people do not hold information back from their lovers.'_

Why did the person use the term 'lover'? Even if it was Raito's girlfriend, wouldn't she just call herself a girlfriend? Whoever Sayu had been sending emails to must be of the male gender and if they were telling the truth, they were a male that Raito was in a relationship with. They also seemed to be someone Raito was in contact with despite him working on the Kira case.

Sachiko tried to recall the names of anyone from the police force that could possibly be who the email was sent from but the only person she could think of was Aizawa and he had a family. There was one thing that Sachiko was sure of; she was going to speak to Raito about this matter once he was done with his work on the Kira case.

If only Soichiro was around, he would know how to use the computer and find out exactly who had sent the email. Maybe it was really just Raito who was playing games with Sayu, based on the way the sender had spoke to Sayu there seemed to be a familiar aspect in the language. Relying on this idea, Sachiko composed an email.

_'From: Sayu'_

_'No wonder Kira has not been caught yet, I wondered what you had been spending all your time doing.'_

Sachiko was not ready for the type of response she was going to receive in a few minutes.

_'From: Raito'_

_'I didn't know you were so sarcastic Sayu! I wouldn't have told you I am Smile if I knew you were going to make fun of my work ethic.'_

This made sense. It made sense why Raito had always been reclusive and why he was always sending messages on his phone and why he was so interested in the news when something happened but never seemed to be interested in the result. Raito is Smile; he is one of the world's greatest detectives.

* * *

Dare to believe  
Over one last time and then I'll let the

Darkness cover me  
Deny everything  
Slowly walk away  
To breath again  
On my own, on my own


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's note: Between two to four chapters until the great revealing, be aware that the story will continue after this occurs due to an event that happens in this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 19

_Glaring at the list Raito had complied, Beyond grimaced. For his little scheme of making Beyond into some version of L's Watari, Raito had decided that Beyond needed to every language that old man knew and more. This list had at least twenty languages that he was expected to learn. Why couldn't Smile just kill him rather than torture him with such vile things? _

_Beyond decided that he was going to confront Raito on the matter, learning that many languages was a preposterous plan. The young detective was supposed to be coming back to the building today. The boy that Beyond had initially found fascinating was being to irritate him. Waiting for Raito to arrive, Beyond wondered if he should just leave since there was nothing directly preventing him from doing so but he discarded these thoughts because of the many possible trackers the detective had probably equipped him with. _

_Maybe he could just kill Raito, if he made it quick and quiet no one would notice. Beyond grinned at the idea of stabbing a blade through that smiling boy's heart or possibly burning him alive; the way he had originally planned to kill himself. Swiftly, Beyond began to act on his idea and charged towards the cabinet near a fireplace to search for a match. Foolish young Raito had left it in plain sight. _

_Laughing in an aggressive manner, Beyond grabbed hold of the small makers of fire and was happy to find the pack of matches full. A sound behind him interrupted his actions. _

_"What do you plan on using that for? Yourself? Me? By your facial expression I can assume it is me, that is unfortunate I thought we were becoming quite good friends," Raito remarked. Beyond was outraged, Raito had been testing him. He had been sitting in this room waiting for Beyond to try something like this so that he could vividly portray him as some type of idiot. _

_"You are just as pathetic as L," Beyond said emotionlessly._

_"Was that supposed to hurt my feelings?" Raito questioned sardonically and placed his head in his hand in a condescending style. _

_"It is funny, I keep picturing you burning."_

_"Is that so?"_

_"Yes and after your dead, I will tape your language list to your ashes."_

_"So that is what this is about?"_

_"Torture is something I am talented at giving not receiving, Smile" Beyond was not surprised to see Raito smile at this statement. _

_"What if I was to learn the list along with you?"_

_"That might change the situation to an extent but you could not keep up with the speed at which I learn."_

_"Would you like to make a wager on that?"_

_"A wager sounds intriguing, as long as I choose the conditions of this bet."_

_"So it is a bet?"_

_"Yes Smile, this is a bet that I do not plan on loosing."_

_The two geniuses smiled cunningly at each other, each planning the quickest way to master the incredibly long list of dialects and tongues._

_

* * *

_

Strutting along the edge of the movie set, Misa let out a serious of dramatic sighs. Each noisy exhale made the men that were working with the cameras turn to the girl for an instant and give her the attention she was demanding. Misa knew she was being annoying to her coworkers but could not help the exasperation she felt from being ditched by Matsuda of all people.

From a distance, a shinigami examined her from the Yotsuba headquarters. Rem could not help but feel delight at the sight of the young blonde model. Everything Rem had done since Jealous's death had been for the girl and Rem loved every moment of helping Misa. Compiling mentally a list of the events of the last few months, Rem remembered threatening the Yagami boy and forcing him into a distressing position.

Rem detested the feelings that she might have been the antagonistic villain in this situation. If it was not for the attachment Rem felt to Misa, she would actually feel sympathy for Raito. When this plan with Yotsuba was finally over, Rem hoped that Raito would be capable enough to talk Misa into forfeiting the appointment of a Kira without compromising Misa's lifespan.

Raucously, a door slammed shut behind Rem and the foolish third Kira stumbled towards her in a distraught behavior. Watching the man, Rem found it peculiar for him to proceed in such an awkward approach. Higuchi Kyosuke had always been an individual composed of only greed and selfishness but now he seemed distressed in a compassionate way.

"I cannot be Kira anymore!" Higuchi shouted and grabbed the Death Note. Messily, he began to rip out the pages that had already been written on and shred them into tiny shreds that fell like a deathly flurry to the ground. His blatant display of disloyalty to his original intentions made Rem question what had lead him to such a change of heart.

Gradually, more strands of paper joined the others on the floor. Rem knew that she was not in the position to ask any questions from the crazed man but she could theorize what Higuchi was planning and act based on that. Higuchi seemed surprisingly sincere in his detestation of the Death Note so it may be viable to say that he had decided to send the notebook to L.

The fact that he was pulling pages with his handwriting out of the notebook contributed to this idea. If this was the case, Rem considered it necessary to caution Misa. Without foreknowledge of her position as the second Kira, the memories or Raito's actions might confuse her and cause her to reveal detrimental information.

Acting on this, Rem grabbed one of the shreds of Death Note pages on the floor and took off in flight towards Misa. Misa needed to be alone so that she did not cause a scene when Rem spoke to her. Taking out her own Death Note, Rem wrote down a small passage and the name of one of Misa's coworkers. All that was left to do was wait for the scene to develop.

Her eyes blank and filled with the dread of some divine control, a brunette programmer from the movie set tripped over a cord and splashed her iced coffee in a motion that covered the beautiful model Misa Misa. Absently, the girl pleaded with Misa to not invoke her rage. She asked to take the model to the bathroom and help her clean herself off. When the two reached the bathroom, the brunette clutched her chest and collapsed from an obvious heart attack.

Before Misa could let out the screech that was bubbling at the back of her throat, a small piece of paper graced the back of her hand and a skeletal form covered her mouth. Misa could see the entire form of the creature by peering into the bathroom's mirrors. The fiend was composed entirely of the skeleton structure except its face which was a reminiscent of the human form. Gazing at her attackers form, Misa observed the purple lips that seemed to be extended by permanent purple markings that extended from its lips down to its chin then lifted to disappear at its hair covered check bone. The purple lips opened and began to speak sensitively.

"Misa you're in a dangerous situation. Calm down and listen to me. I am your ally. Raito Yagami is Kira," Rem spoke all of the words slowly for Misa to be able to process the entirety of what was said. Once the last statement was made, Rem moved her hand from Misa's mouth but still held the girl.

"What are you? I know you're not a stalker but you don't look human at all," Misa stated in a timid tone.

"Of course, I am a shinigami. Misa, we once worked together."

"I don't know what you are talking about. You met me? Raito is Kira?" As she asked the questions, Misa's breathing speed up to an alarming rate in fear.

Rem decided to explain the entire situation to Misa, including the Death Note and the way that Kira came to power with the help of another Shinigami. Within the explanation, Rem told Misa about the shinigami eye deal that she had made and thus the fact that Misa had abilities greater than that of Kira. Throughout the explanation, Rem used the name Kira rather than Raito so that she would not slip and state the name Mikami instead. Rem finalized all her statement by asking if Misa's love for Raito was still intact.

"Shinigami-san, you really are the real thing. You know everything about me. I'll believe everything you say. Yes, I love him more than anything. Besides, it's really awesome that both Raito and I were Kira. I believe you."

"You have not changed at all Misa. Those feelings towards Raito will probably never change will they? I also believe that you will find happiness by staying with Raito," Rem replied with grief in her tone.

"Thank you, Shinigami-san".

"It's Rem." After making this statement, Rem let the girl go and then got on her knees in a humbling way. On her knees she was about the same height as Misa. "The current Kira is a crooked and pathetic human. He has come to the idea that he wishes to discontinue his killings and is planning on sending the Death Note to wherever L is stationed. Be careful because once you retain your memories Raito may not seem to act as Kira."

"I respect what you have said, Rem. Thank you for your guidance. What am I to do about my co-worker?" Misa asked and pointed towards the heart attack stricken body of the brunette.

"Wipe off your handprints and pretend to know nothing of the situation. Be careful Misa, the members of the task force have returned to the movie set," Rem said before taking flight to the building where Kira-3 was staying.

With a renewed sense of purpose, Misa skipped over the dead body of an innocent bystander and out the door of the bathroom to meet up with Matsuda. As Misa moved away from the bathroom, she increased the speed of her skipping so that she would be as far as possible from the sight that was left in there. Matsuda was at the spot where Misa had been around the time he went missing, along with him was the red and black haired detective from the investigation headquarters.

"Misa Misa! Where have you been?" Matsuda's speak seemed far too unrealistically bubbly.

"I went to the restroom; the better question is where you have been?" When Misa spoke her tone matched the animated cheer that had been in Matsuda's voice.

Deciding to not leave it to Matsuda to answer the question, Beyond intercepted the speech in order to answer. "We were never gone and you will tell Ryuuzaki and Raito we were not gone unless you want to once again be locked in a cell. Do you understand, Amane?"

"You're not very nice, meanie-san," Misa retorted in a display of her juvenile mindset.

"At least that name is slightly better than the one Misa gave Ryuuzaki," Matsuda said consolingly. During the time period in which Misa was locked in a cell, she had occasionally referred to L using the name pervert-san, which was far worse in Matsuda's opinion than meanie-san.

"It is not even faintly relevant to me what she refers to me as; I am only concerned with her restricted brain retaining the fact that we never left her alone. I believe it is time for us to be heading back to headquarters, do you agree?"

Nodding with acquiescence, Misa agreed to the fact that the three should be returning to headquarters. Although she did not want to return to the building and speak to the nerdy black haired Teru, Misa hoped she would have a chance to at least greet Raito.

Misa understood that Raito still did not know he was Kira but she wanted to him again after the realization that he was her idol. Ever since Misa found out Kira killed the man that murdered her parents she had an idolatrous love for him. Knowing that Raito and Kira are the same, Misa was filled with eternal devotion for him.

Without realizing the purely rhetorical nature of the question, Misa actually stated allowed that she agreed with Beyond. Matsuda, following her example, also answered the affirmative out loud. Struggling to resist the urge to point out the fact that the question was rhetorical, Beyond simply disregarded the duo and began to walk towards the car Matsuda had used to transport Misa to the movie set.

* * *

Raito was annoyed by the fact that L had been pulled away from their conversation by the absence of Beyond. Considering this annoyance, Raito realized that he significantly missed the time he used to spend speaking to L through the text messages of Smile. He had ample capability to converse with L now but he could cultivate a true friendship with the detective while still a suspect for being Kira.

Watching as L ate numerous objects of pure saccharin and sugar, Raito smiled. He imagined L eating the smiley face cake he had sent the few mounts ago, the mounts that had felt like they had been made up of years rather than days. Wishfully, Raito thought of what his current situation would be if not for the Kira case. If such a situation was possible, he would not only still be active as Smile and would no longer be suspected for the atrocities committed by Kira.

Eventually, L seemed to notice the fact that Raito was staring at him while caught up in chaotic thoughts. Could Raito's thoughts be associated with who he at once time was? Whether Raito's alias was Kira or Smile, L knew the boy was not merely Raito. The glitter in Raito's intellectual eyes made L feel almost completely obliged to not pester him but it would make the teen lose focus to be interrupted during deep thought.

"Raito-kun," L said softly and stared into the dilated brown pupils that were lost out of the present setting by thought. There was no response from the other. Pulling his wrist stridently into the air, L forced Raito to lose his stability and collapse from his chair.

"Hell," Raito replied and then softly shook his head to acknowledge his mistake, "I meant to say L."

"Raito-kun continues to deny that he is Kira, yet he blatantly disrespects the great detective L who is trying to bring Kira to justice."

"OK Misa, go ahead and speak in third person."

"Another disrespectful comment, if this continues the only proof of your innocence will be the repudiation of the fact that you are Kira and have killed hundreds of criminals."

"I would never be Kira," Raito stated plainly.

"Startling, I would have thought as a supporter of justice you would be supportive of the platform to remove mankind's slavery to criminals. Even I would be overjoyed to live in a utopian society were the judicial system is void because of the lack of crime."

"Something is never nothing, and thus everything has a reason. Crime and upset plague our society but crime is important. Through the eyes of criminals, the truth behind our entire serene environment is revealed. Each criminal has a reason for what they did, and if they have a reason then they should have a chance to prove their reasoning through peace. The world deserves redemption because all of us are something that will never be nothing."

"That sounds like utter nonsense," L replied. Despite his harsh reply, this statement reminded him of the fact that Smile had been the savior for Beyond and many other murders that would have otherwise had capital punishment. It seemed that L, Smile, and Kira were a triad of opposites. L was the reverse of Smile and Kira, Smile was opposite of L and Kira, and Kira was a criminal.

Remembering who had made the statements, L began to mentally increase the percentile of Raito being Smile. Their beliefs on the judicial system were similar, thus their morals were also similar and both seemed to have a deep compassion for the human condition. Raito seemed to be smiling at L's comment, he seemed accustomed to this harsh reply to his views.

"You think that I am saying is nonsense? The world is nonsense. Look at us, we are solving a case where someone kills using natural heart attacks," Raito said in a bland attempt at humor.

"That is very true, Sm-Raito-kun."

"What did you just say?"

"I was about to say Kira but found it inappropriate to call you that in our current conversation."

"Then why did you…never mind it is not important," Raito had been distracted from the utterance that sounded distinctly like the name 'Smile'. Beyond barged in asking where he could find duct tape.

"Perché?" Raito inquired; his tone soaked in amusement. Asking why in Italian seeped out of his mouth before Raito realized he was speaking the language. He always asked for explanations in Italian, possibly because asking for explanations led the Italians to renew the world's knowledge after a period of intellectual darkness.

"Che forza qualcosa chiusa su un determinato biondo'," Beyond said in the language of Italy. He wanted to force Misa's mouth closed using the duct tape.

In an attempt at preventing himself from laughing, Ratio turned his head away and pressed his hand against his smirking face. Beyond took the hilarity as a sign that he would not get his requested duct tape and left the room to silence the model in some other way. Raito glanced at a camera view of Misa's room, the audio was off but Raito could see the girl's mouthed words.

'Stop telling me to hush Teru! I am not going to stop screaming until meanie-san lets me see Raito!'

L could not seem to focus, too many suspicious proceedings had happened on the part of Raito. Speaking to Beyond, Raito had been fluent and without accent in Italian. Although L could tell what was said, it seemed as if half the conversation relied merely on the two's tacit agreement on a matter. All that Raito had said was why and yet the statement had seemed to satisfy Beyond and it made him leave the room.

Surely, any reasonable intellectual would say Raito is Smile but L was not reasonable, he was reason. Although based on the boy's actions he seemed to have similar views and a similar relationship with Beyond Birthday, there was obvious flaws that came with the knowledge of Smile's work. Working for the last five years, Smile had solved cases that the most trained minds in the world including L himself may not have been able to figure out.

The problem was five years ago Raito was twelve, barely out of the elementary process of education. To add to this objection was the fact that Yagami Raito had openly admitted that he had reason to believe he was Kira. Surely, Smile would not say such a thing in order to solve the case before him. If Raito was not Smile, then Beyond and Kira had become allies which could be an extremely unfavorable position.

Glancing at the monitor Raito was intently looking at, L saw the scene occurring between Mikami and Misa. This problem must have been the reason behind Beyond's request for tape to cover Misa's mouth. L wished it was as easy as using tape, her mere presence made a shrieking noise that could not be prevented by closing her mouth.

"L," Raito said noticing the detective watching the scene he was seeing, "can Misa just be told she can see me in the morning?"

"I suppose that would be acceptable," the black haired detective said impassively.

* * *

Send me a sign  
Turn back the clock  
Give me some time  
I need to break out  
And make a new name  
Let's open our eyes  
To the brand new day  
It's a brand new day

It's a brand new day  
I know it's a brand new day  
Come on to the brand new day


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's note: I am very pleasured to announce that I have received...fan-art for Another Detective. Hidden in Sunlight created an image on her devianart account of Beyond. **_www(dot)hiddensunlight(dot)deviantart(dot)com _

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the "echoes of eternity" lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 20

Yawning softly, Sayu walked into the kitchen where her mother diligently worked. The eyes that seemed genetically identical to her own turned to look at Sayu before returning to the cooking process in order to make breakfast. When her mother's eyes turned towards her, Sayu saw the reddening of her tear ducts that betrayed the droplets of water that had previously been present.

Sayu began to ask what was wrong but the sentence was interrupted. "How long have you known of it?"

Staggered by the question, Sayu's eyes broadened and she tried to search her mind for what the mentioned 'it' must be. Could her mother be referring to how long she knew of the shinigami and the way Kira kills? It upset her that her mother would have audacity to search through her room while she slept to find the deadly scrap of paper. "What?" Sayu finally responded.

"How long have you known Raito is Smile?" Sachiko clarified. Ashamed of showing her daughter the tear that was tickling the edge of her face, Sachiko turned away. She had not been bothered initially by the news of her son being the famous detective but her thoughts had wandered to the possibility of her son following Soichiro to a death bed.

"Since he interrupted Kira's broadcast," Sayu honestly replied.

Sachiko toweled off her eyes and looked at her beautiful child before speaking again. "Stay away from it all please, Sayu. No matter what Raito may say there should never be a reason for you doing anything even related to police work. I don't want to lose you too," a choke of sorrow clouded the sentence.

Trying to calm her mother, Sayu cautiously walked over and embraced her mother in an affectionate hug. "I will make sure I do not get involved with the Kira case and the rest of the police business, I promise."

In Sayu's mind the lie sounded pleasant but on her tongue it felt sickening. Hearing the words as they left her mouth, Sayu knew the she sounded uncertain. The mendacity served to prove how different Sayu was from her brother; she could not twist words into well planned deception without showing the deceit in her otherwise innocent eyes. Though the lie seemed obvious to Sayu, Sachiko seemed too occupied by her sorrow to notice.

Sayu's eyes began to water but she forced them to stay open so the dry air would prevent the liquid from seeping down her cheek. Standing in a distraught state, the women seemed to be without a comforter to soothe their sadness and make things right again. Soichiro, Raito, and the world had abandoned them in their time of need.

Pulling away, Sayu smiled hopefully. Raito would come back home, Smile and L would be victorious. Sayu and Sachiko would be safe from Kira because of Smile, he would protect them. Her brother would come through for them, Sayu was certain. There was a four out of three chance that they would all be fine and happy, but then again Sayu's worse subject had always been probability.

The hopeful smile quickly fell as she saw a familiar creature letting its harsh laugh sound in the kitchen. Bite by bite a red apple disappeared into the shinigami's mouth. Why had the wicked creature reappeared and what did it find so amusing? From her last experience the only event the fiend laughed at was the death of humans. Abruptly, Sayu hurried off to her room to speak to the shinigami.

Reaching her room, Sayu turned to face to shinigami that had followed her. "Are you going to write anymore names on the Death Note page?" The creature asked her.

Panic filled her face as she stared at the death god. She had no choice; the shinigami obviously wanted her to write more names. Reluctantly, Sayu nodded her head. Her agreeing to write more names caused the shinigami to pull out a black notebook. Recalling the last time she saw the book, Sayu reminded herself of the journey she had made to an office where she had found the diary that contained the first piece of deadly paper.

"Here is your notebook, Sayu. I need to tell you that since you have used the Death Note, I will be the one to kill you when you die." Sayu watched the book that had now been given to her, who was she going to execute to keep the shinigami satisfied? Considering the possibilities, Sayu opted for a criminal that no one would miss. In the corner of the room, Ryuk chortled at the new Kira.

* * *

L wanted to get up early; Wedy had news of whether or not she could install the cameras at Yotsuba and L would not be satisfied until the criminal killer was captured. Unfortunately, the lump he had chained to his arm served as a weight to prevent his movement. The lump rolled over in his sleep causing the sheet covering his face to slide down and reveal Raito. Watching the teen, L calculated a way to wake Raito up without angering him.

Taking a marker from beside the bed, L delicately pressed the tip of the marker against Raito's cheek and slid it down in a straight line. Once the line was complete, L grazed the tip towards Raito's lips. Raito must have been ticklish because the marker's movements had caused him to drowsily move his hand upward to brush away the irritation.

Instead of brushing away the nuisance, Raito's hand collided with the hand L was using to write on his face. Raito withdrew his hand and opened his eyes to look at the black haired detective hovering above his face with a permanent marker. A few moments passed before Raito's mind woke up and he came to the conclusion that L wrote on his face. By the time this occurred, L seemed amused by something and Raito could only assume it was whatever was written on his face.

"What did you write on my face?" Raito asked. The only response was an odd sound similar to a laugh that came from L. "Are you laughing at me?" Raito questioned with displeasure.

"I do not laugh at murderers," L said with a bland voice that seemed to be efficiently hiding the amusement he felt. Without bothering to deny the underlying accusation, Raito sat up and waited for L to do the same so that he could assess the facial damage.

Immediately, Raito began to search for the nearest mirror. When he found the reflective surface, a huge 'L' greeted his eyes. Raito licked the edge of his thumb and began to rub at the marker but this only served to soften the edges so the letter looked airbrushed. Raito's attempt to remove the letter stopped and a sly smile spread across his face. "L, remember your reference to the saying 'an eye for an eye'?"

Raito pulled on the chain to make the marker in L's hand fall to the floor and both the detectives stared at the entity. Since the marker was closer to Raito, L decided it would be best to attempt to prevent the inevitable. "If you try to even touch that marker you will be convicted as being Kira."

"Interesting proposition but I do not believe fabulists," Raito said and lunged for the permanent marker.

Watching Raito, L could only stare. 'Fabulist' was what Smile had said after L had accused him of being Kira. The word was quite commonplace in literature but not often used in conversational context. Was the handsome teenager with the smeared letter L across his face really the same person he had spoken to for the last few years? There had been several times the thought crossed his mind but it was always overshadowed by the possibility of Raito being Kira.

Wondering if the use of one simple word could prove Smile's identity, L tried to back away from the marker wielding Raito. As soon as Raito moved closer in an attempt to write on L, L lashed out a carefully planned kick that would fling the marker to the other side of the room. Raito let out a curse as L's foot hit his hand. "Raito-kun should not purposely provoke such harm to himself," L said in a clarifying manner.

"No wonder Kira wants to kill you," Raito hissed and rubbed his bruised hand.

* * *

The door to Misa's door swung open and Matsuda walked in with a small package in his hand. "Misa Misa, a package was at the front door. I assumed it was another one of the cosmetic products you ordered."

Grabbing the package, Misa thanked Matsuda from bringing it to her. The samples of her own cosmetic line had been coming every few days so the task force had grown accustomed to bringing the items to her without checking the contents first. L would be upset for their carelessness when dealing with a Kira suspect but no one believed the cheery girl could be a murderer.

Attentively, Misa glanced at a clock that hung against the room's wall. She had to get ready for her date; Ryuuzaki said that she could see Raito this morning and she wanted to look most excellent. Maybe, Misa could use the new delivery of makeup when she went so that she would look her best. The package did not have a label on it so Misa did not know exactly what it held but she hoped it was mascara.

A shrill scream escaped Misa's mouth as she opened the package and reached inside to grab what she thought was a product. Memories of meeting Rem and discovering that Raito was Kira filled her mind. The flashes of recollection made her head ache and she felt uneasy. Her screams seemed to disturb the other occupant of her floor; Mikami walked over to find out what had distressed her.

Carelessly, Misa had dropped the package that contained the Death Note. Mikami picked up the package as Misa continued to act flustered by the memories that were filling her mind. The black haired man peered curiously into the opened portion of the box Misa dropped. Sensing some significance in the book, the original Kira seized the black covered Death Note and brought back to mind all the forgotten recollections that came with it.

Considering his plan of action, Mikami demonstrated his satisfaction in the cruel grin that laced his face. Kira had won. This was all according to his plan; all that remained to be done was the removal of Misa and the anonymous detectives that suspected him. After completing these actions, Mikami would save the second Kira from this awful place. His loyal worshipper, who he had assumed to be Raito, did not deserve to be treated as a criminal by L.

Mikami calmly noticed that this Death Note was not the one he originally had. If this was true, the Kira that had been killing people in his absence had been using this notebook. Of course, if this was that Kira's Death Note then the killings of criminals would soon or had already stopped.

The slight stir in the room as Misa paced back and forth drew Mikami's attention away from the book he was holding. He had forgotten for a moment about the startled girl. "Misa, are you alright?

"I am fine, may I have that back," Misa said regarding the Death Note. She seemed excited for some reason; it could be the chance she had to show Raito her discovery.

Without any struggle, Mikami gave the book to Misa. Her giving it to Raito and causing him to possibly retain memories of being the second Kira would be more helpful than him keeping the notebook. "Are you going to give that to Yagami-kun?" Mikami asked.

"How did you know?" The naïve girl squealed. Mikami knew because he was god, he was Kira and as such he was all knowing. Few segments of information had eluded him and those that had only consisted of the names of the two aliased detectives that were opposing him. Soon, Mikami was sure even that information would be his.

"It doesn't seem to be the makeup you were looking for but you still want to bring it for your date," Mikami explained to the girl. Feeling sorry for his loyal second Kira that had to deal with Misa, Mikami watched as Misa turned to prepare for the date she had been talking to the mirror about all night.

As long as L or Smile did not get their grimy hands on the mantle of justice, Mikami knew his plans would work. There was also the question of what had happened to his own Death Note during his absence. Hopefully, the law office he worked for threw away the notebook and Ryuk had rescued it from being burned with other combustible trash. If so, it was possible that the notebook had been given to another individual. Mikami needed to escape this headquarters to speak to someone who would help him track down whoever found the Death Note.

Observing Misa, Mikami thought of a perfect plan involving the girl's date. When Misa gave the notebook to Raito, he had to make sure they were so engrossed by the novelty of the shinigami he could sneak past them and the rest of the task force. The only condition that Mikami needed to ensure for his plan to work was his personal presence when the girl gave the Death Note to Raito.

Misa walked out of the bathroom and showed the exceptionally long preparation time was finally completed. She had chosen to wear a black outfit to match the Death Note and skeleton jewelry to match the idea of a shinigami. Approvingly, Misa gazed at her own reflection in the mirror. There was no doubt that Raito would love her in this outfit.

"Misa, when you leave I will be accompanying you. One of those detectives thinks it is risky to leave a Kira suspect alone," Mikami said as Misa stared in the mirror. Turning to face Mikami, the model's eyes glazed over with an indefinable anger.

"Why don't they just invite the whole Earth to my date?" Misa responded solemnly.

"People would not come within a ten mile radius of you unless by force," Mikami whispered under breath but, thankfully, Misa did not hear him.

Seeming satisfied with her appearance and choice of accessories, Misa pulled Mikami along with her as she hurried toward Raito. Misa had to make sure she made the most of the limited time given by Ryuuzaki for each date. As she raced through the hallway, Misa saw that Raito had yet to arrive at the destination for their date. He was standing in the hallway complaining about something.

From what she could hear, the argument between Raito and Ryuuzaki was about something that had happened to Raito's face. His attempts to clean his face failed so Ryuuzaki had tried to dab his face with alcohol so as to remove whatever was on Raito's face. Listening to their conversation, Misa gathered that Ryuuzaki upset Raito by his touching his face is such a way. Misa understood his concerns, Ryuuzaki was a creep.

Suddenly, the two noticed Misa and began to look at her with a questioning stare. "Raito and I have a date today!" Misa's squeaky voice called. There seemed to be a wince adorning Raito's face, he must have been ashamed that he had forgotten that he would be able to spend time with Misa.

"Of course Misa, I would have remembered if not for disruptions this morning-", Raito's speaking trailed off as he looked at who was with Misa. Mikami was there but Raito's eyes seemed to be focused on the figure of the white shinigami.

"Hello Yagami Raito," the shinigami mouthed so that Misa would not notice the exchange.

Raito wondered why the shinigami was present. Remembering something the shinigami had said before it had him pretend to think he 'might be Kira', Raito recalled it telling him shinigami had to stay with Death Note owners. If it was here then so was Kira's murder book. Slowly, Raito's eyes moved to the book Misa was cradling in her arms. "Misa, what is that?"

Mikami, Misa, L, and Rem's eyes trailed Raito as he took the book from Misa's outreached hand. On the front of the black book were the words 'Death Note'. Knowing that he needed to act as if he was having a reaction from the touch of the book, Raito raised the one side of his mouth in a devilish smirk. Although L could not see the way Raito's mouth lifted the 'L' plastered cheek and the murderous intentions this lift implied, the way Mikami and Misa seemed to react made L's thoughts rush to Kira.

Out of the crowd of beings, the only one Raito truly wanted to please was distressed. L looked at him as if he was the scum of the Earth, as if he was some sick murderer with no reason behind his actions. When Raito saw L open his mouth to utter his thoughts, Raito's entire being seemed to cringe. "May I view the object you are holding, Kira?"

When Raito held the book out to L, a piece of legal paper slipped out. Raito reached down to pick up the short letter that seemed to be typed on the paper. Beside him, L seemed unconcerned with the letter as he read the rules of the Death Note. Deciding to read the letter, Raito stared at the words printed on the page.

_'L,_

_If you are reading this then I have given up my position as Kira. This Death Note is the way I kill; I have already forfeited my memories._

_There is someone I must thank. His name and face will never go in the Death Note but they have engraved themselves into my mind. A red and black haired Criminal Psychologist allowed me to begin introspection of why I became Kira. I wanted the money for myself because when I was young my father never gave my mother money but through being Kira people like my mother have been killed.  
I hope you understand,_

_Kira'_

When Raito finally looked up, Mikami had vanished and L was beginning to talk to the shinigami. Rem, as the shinigami told L 'her' name was, had little knowledge of the way the Death Note worked. Raito did not observe any reactions to the shinigami from L; it was as if he was entirely comfortable talking to the creature of death. L even began to tell her his plan to test the validity of the Death Note rules in order to verify one he found questionable.

* * *

Staring into nothing  
Questioning what is real  
We don't share the same reality  
Personal perception  
Life's your own creation  
What you see now is really what you believe  
Lost beneath the silent sky  
Yearning to know the reasons why  
Want to know what's out there


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's note: I am laughing because I know what's going to happen next. xD**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the "Creed" lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 21

Mikami knew the investigators would soon learn of his absence so he frantically searched for a safe way to exit the building or to find a phone that would not be recorded. Already having considered the possibilities for individuals he could speak to in order to seek assistance in finding the new owner of his death note, Mikami had the phone number and address in mind.

Realizing that a phone would be easier to find, Mikami searched for one of the investigator's cellular devices. Outside the main room for the investigation a cell phone sat on an end table. Mikami turned it on and heard the soft tune the phone admitted while displaying the welcome greeting to someone named Matsuda.

The detective who had set the greeting probably had forgotten to switch the greeting after changing his real name to an alias. Mikami would have to remember the name in case he ever needed it in the future. Doubtlessly, the information on this phone could be helpful to him later on.

Mikami remembered his original purpose for retrieving the phone and quickly pressed a series of buttons on the cell phone. The quick paced typing had caused the first attempt to be flawed, Mikami called only to receive notice that a number had been disconnected. Retrying the number, Mikami pressed the buttons once again. Without warning, something prevented Mikami from dialing the number.

Mikami's chest suffered an explosion of tremendous pain. Feeling the slow demise of his body, Mikami began to suffer from shortness of breath and ligaments of his upper body felt discomfort. The pain become unbearable as the pressure of the recklessly pumping blood moved his heart toward cardiac arrest. As he fell to his knees, a thought clouded his mind.

Gods cannot die, this is impossible. He is Kira! No one can kill him by the petty heart attack he inflicted on his victims. Despite his minds dispute, Mikami's heart was giving out. Drops of sweat formed on Mikami's forehead as his body collapsed to the floor completely.

He needed to do something to continue the legacy of Kira and have his loyal followers continue on his pathway towards a new world order. Before his eyes closed in the last seconds of his death, Mikami cried out to the young man he thought was the second Kira.

In the room nearest to him, a group of investigators heard the cry and rushed to the deceased man. Beyond cursed as he saw the dead Kira, this had not been the date of death earlier destined. There had to have been something that had changed between the previous day and now, something that had to do with the Kiras and their wimpy heart attack killings.

Ukita rushed to the man to check his heart beat and Matsuda went in search of L and Raito. Seeing a chance to help, Mogi grabbed hold of the phone that was beside Mikami and deleted the number displayed on it in order to dial an ambulance. It had been the second time the group, other than Beyond, had seen someone die of a heart attack right in front of their eyes and each was dismayed by their inability to help the heart attack stricken man.

The death rekindled the desire to capture and bring an end to Kira, as had the death of Chief Yagami so many weeks ago. While trying to make provisions for the already dead man, each of the investigators silently wondered why Mikami had called for Raito with his last breath. Had L been right about Raito being Kira? They found this unlikely; he would not have killed his father and was too kind to be a murderer.

All of the fretful efforts of the men on the task force made Beyond feel tired but he knew he had to do something important before taking rest. Getting the strawberry jam his stomach was craving came foremost and then he could sit down and rest while watching as the rest of the group try to decide why Mikami had died. Beyond was also uncertain as to the reason for the sudden death but did not care enough to dwell on it.

* * *

Speaking to the shinigami, L found the need to question various aspects of the killer notebook. The first element he found odd was the missing corner of one of the pages, this missing page may allow Kira to kill without having the entire notebook. "Would someone still die if their name is written on the part of a page?"

"Who knows? I have not used it in that way, so I would not know," the shinigami answered. This answer seemed like a lie coming from the shinigami but L decided it would be best not to call the death god out on the matter and continued to another question.

"Then, do shinigami only eat apples?"

"No. Shinigami's organs are more evolved than that of mortals: we do not need to eat." All of Rem's answers seemed to be unrevealing; she seemed to be unknowledgeable or holding back information about the death note.

Reading over the rules of the notebook, L saw proof that none of the current Kira suspects were guilty. One rule stated that an individual must write a name in the note book every thirteen days after their last killing or else suffer from a death dealing heart attack. This meant two possibilities: Raito, Misa, and Mikami were innocent of their charges as Kiras or the rule was false.

While the conversation between the shinigami and L was taking place, Matsuda came racing towards them with a panic evident in his face. "Mikami has had a heart attack," he began to say between heavy breaths.

While L seemed unsurprised, Raito seemed shocked to hear this news. All of the killers other than Mikami himself were standing before him, the only way a Kira could have killed him was suicide.

"This means that the man who left the notebook was not necessarily Kira?" Raito asked L although he already knew the answer; this notebook was Kira's weapon.

"What notebook?" Matsuda questioned upon hearing Raito.

"No, I am positive that this individual had to have been one killing criminals," L said without responding to Matsuda.

"Then, another Kira has appeared," Raito stated to clarify his own thoughts. Considering this possibility, Raito found that it made sense. Mikami must have had an alternative notebook to Rem's notebook and during his captivity there was a high likelihood that someone had found his discarded death note.

The noises from outside the building reached the ears of the group; the ambulance that Mogi had called using Matsuda's cell phone had arrived to pick up Mikami's body. As long as the body was cared for there was nothing else that needed to be handled, Mikami had neither kith nor kin that desired to be notified. Also, the task force did not need to be present at the hospital since this would only disrupt their work.

Soon after handing Mikami over to the emergency workers, Ukita and Mogi joined Matsuda to learn from L the developments regarding the weapon Kira used and the shinigami, Rem. Raito also shared the note that had been found in the front of the death note with the group. After the entire group was notified of the occurrences that morning, L began to state his theories relating to the death of Mikami.

"Misa was freed at the same time we received the Kira's notebook and was living with Mikami, wasn't she?"

"Ryuuzaki, are you still saying that? Misa is not involved," Raito responded to L's question.

"It was as soon as we received the notebook that Mikami died, although it may have been a coincidence," Ukita stated.

"You're right," L said to Ukita, "well if there is another notebook and someone using it, I'll catch him."

L's statements were beginning to unnerve Raito; if L continued to speak in this manner about Kira Rem might interpret it as a direct threat to Misa. "Ryuuzaki, even if we were to catch the person writing in the notebook. Can we really convict and punish him as a serial killer?" Raito questioned, hoping that L would find this action hypocritical and thus comfort the shinigami.

"Well, of course" Matsuda answered. Raito wished he could throw something at the foolish man when he responded in place of L. "He wrote countless names knowing that people would die. We should kill him if we don't want to existence of the notebook to be public."

Raito grimaced at the man in disgust. "Why should the public not know of the notebook's existence? They are entitled to as much knowledge as we are. Also, why-"

"Killing him is harsh," Ukita intercepted to prevent the rest of Raito's questioning, "But I bet that's what our superiors would demand."

"If he admits to killing with the notebook, he would receive the death penalty," L finally answered, "or at least a life sentence."

Raito was disturbed by the fact that L was threatening Misa so readily in the presence of Rem. He decided to shift his thoughts to other problems regarding the case. Smiling as another thought came to him, Raito asked L another question. "This notebook's rules prove the innocence of both me and Misa, are we going to be released?"

"Yes, I suppose that would be acceptable." L called on Watari for the key to unlock Raito from the handcuffs that had been used to connect him to L. Detaching himself from Raito would prove to be helpful, he needed to think about the occurrences of the day without being troubled by the teen coming to conclusions before he could.

Unlocking the chain between L and Raito, Watari was equally caring with the cuff so as to not bruise either of the detectives' wrists. L appeared surprised by this subtle respect shown towards the Kira suspect but did not question Watari. The case was getting far more confusing than it had been when L thought Raito was Kira and Misa was the second Kira.

* * *

L looked at the rule of the notebook regarding thirteen days. This was the same rule that Raito was referring to when he asked to be released and it was the only part of the death note rules that L questioned. He had been sure that at least Misa, if not Misa and Raito, was involved as a Kira. Alas, if this rule was correct all of the theories he had made were incorrect. Smile had also been incorrect in choosing Mikami as a suspect, his death proved as much.

The note that Raito had showed the group also proved to be confusing to L. Remembering the original ideas he held about the Yotsuba group, L never thought the man in charge of those killings would simply give up his job as Kira. L interpreted the note to mean that someone had spoken to him and changed his mind as regards killing criminals. If this was true then who was this 'black and red haired criminal psychologist'.

Possibly, this individual had been Beyond and their conversation took place while Beyond had escaped for a time to follow Matsuda and Misa. It surprised L that Beyond would take the initiative to walk into the Yotsuba headquarters and speak to the Kira present there. Possibly, Matsuda had originally planned to do this and Beyond had simply followed him and created the psychologist lie as a method of escape.

It was best not to dwell on these past events. The happenings within the last few hours were enough to make various theories concerning. Both Mikami and Misa had reacted to something Raito had done, despite the thirteen day rule in the death note, this action seemed suspicious. If Raito was Kira the fact that Mikami had died may be attributed to him and possibly related to the scrap of paper that was missing from the death note's corner.

An annoying chime coming from outside the building seemed to disrupt L's thoughts. Mentally, L knew it was impossible for such a low noise to penetrate the soundproof walls of the Kira headquarters but his ears still heard a ringing noise. Curiosity spurred him to disperse for the roof where he could possibly locate the cause of such a distracting bell like sound.

Once on the roof the sound of bells seemed to be all around him, echoing in his ear drums like a broken record playing the same tune over and over. He walked towards the edge of the roof to peer out at the city, outwardly unaware to the torrential downpour. Listening to the bells, L did not even hear the raging winds lash the sheets of rain onto the metal panels and satellites that dressed the roof.

Slowly, L turned in the rain so that he could look for a tall bell tower that may be creating the noise that was interrupting his thoughts. Instead, L saw that Raito had come onto the roof and was shouting illegible words towards him. In order to have him speak louder, L curved his hand around the edge of his ear so that Raito could see that he was unable to make out what was being said.

The boy did not seem to get the point because he said the same thing with a louder tone. Once again, L wrapped hand around his ear but this time he had a smile on his face. Raito seemed to be annoyed as he walked closer and had to enter the rain. "What are you doing there, L?" Raito asked once he drew closer.

As L began to speak, Raito noticed something had changed about L. The numbers that represented his death had been significantly reduced. "Well, I am not doing anything in particular but the sound of bells. The bells have been really noisy throughout the day. They have been ringing all day and I couldn't help but feel curious. Do you suppose it's a church? A wedding? Or perhaps-"

Raito could not tolerate his friend saying funeral when L's death would be in a manner of hours. "What? Perhaps it is a funeral, a show for the death of one. In the rain it seems more important, even the elements honor one that is truly important. Let's go inside, I seem to have just noticed some type of liquid dripping from the clouds," Raito interrupted.

"I'm sorry. Everything I say is complete nonsense, so…Please don't believe any of it."

"You are right; most of what you say is nonsense. There would be no end if I took you seriously all the time. At least with ourselves being so confusing neither of us will get bored," Raito said. L had his questioning glare turned towards him again; it took him a minute to realize what he had said. The last line of his sentence was a message that Smile had at one point sent to L.

L continued speaking without letting the statement bother him. "Yes that's right, Raito-kun. It's true for both of us. Raito, have you ever told the truth at any point since you were born?"

"What are you talking about? It's true I lie once in awhile. But how many people live their entire life only telling the truth? Humans are not made perfectly. Everyone lies. Even so, I have been careful to only tell lies to help those I care for. That's my answer," his words were said to quickly and were not focused. Raito could only stare at the numbers above L's head. There had to be a way to get the numbers back to normal, was Rem going to kill L?

"I thought you would say that. Let's get back, we're drenched."

"Oh? I didn't notice it was raining," Raito joked as he followed L into the building. As he walked, Raito wrote something on the back of an object he had acquired from Watari earlier in the day. His mind had formulated an impromptu plan.

The two reached an area where there was a staircase and a storage closet that contained towels. Raito took off his soggy shoes and stared off in the distance as his mind reviewed the plan he had formulated to ensure the probability of the idea working. As Raito reviewed his idea, he dully tried to dry his hair. Suddenly, a gasp escaped his mouth. L was doing something to his foot. "What are you doing?" He asked in a startled manner.

"I thought I would give you assistance. I will help wipe you dry."

"Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head," Raito said and L stared at him for a moment before smiling. The statement was a quote from a biblical passage of John questioning the messiah for his washing of the disciples' feet.

"He that has bathed does not need to have more than his feet washed, but is wholly clean. And you men are clean, but not all," L completed the quote by stating the response.

"L, you unlike him do not know whether I am the betrayer." Thinking about what he had let escape his mouth, Raito was ashamed of himself for revealing so much. By saying this he revealed the fact that he knew exactly what was going through L's mind and thus had a higher probability for being Kira.

L did not list Kira percentages; instead he calmly veered away from the subject. "I am going to give you a massage too. It's the least I can do, and I'm also pretty good at it."

"Do what you want," Raito said and was once again staring at the numbers that were dwindling to under an hour away. Wishing he could simply wipe away the numbers, Raito took his towel and pressed in against the front of L's forehead. Sadly, the numbers would not vanish. "You are still wet," Raito said to excuse his actions.

"Sad isn't it?" L said in a genuinely sorrowful voice.

"What?"

"It's nearly time to say farewell." Raito seemed shocked at L's words. Why would L say something that implied his own downfall? Possibly, L knew of his impending death? A phone ring interrupted the two.

L answered and spoke to who Raito assumed to be Watari. "Yes? Understood, I will be there straight away."

"Shall we go then, Raito-kun? It seems like things have gone well."

"Wait," Raito said and watched as L turned around to face him, "my father, when he was alive, loved to gamble to relieve stress from work. His favorite sets of cards were completely white on the back side so that he could write messages on them when he had a winning hand." Raito paused for a minute to retrieve something from a pocket of his drenched dress pants. "I fold, but for you my best card."

An old text message from Smile came to mind as L saw the card that Raito was handing him. 'Trust me I have plenty more aces', Smile had said and the card Raito gave him was an ace of hearts. Quickly realizing the implications behind the story on the topic of his father, L flipped over the card and his eyes widened at the message on the opposite side of the card.

The first word was 'I' and the second 'am', the third word made L's heart stop momentarily.

* * *

I feel it's gonna rain like this for days  
Let it rain down and wash everything away  
I hope that tomorrow the sun will shine  
With every tomorrow brings another life  
I feel it's gonna rain, for days and days  
I feel it's gonna rain

I tried to figure out, I can understand  
What it means to live on again  
Trapped inside the truth and the consequence  
Nothings real, nothings making sense


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews, hope you all enjoy the first 2010 update. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the "Above and Beyond" ****lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

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Chapter 22

_This individual had to a fool. Since L had taken on the job as a detective and made his way to greatness, there had never been a challenger to his throne as the greatest detective. In under a year some random number among the millions had drawn dangerously close to the recognition and respect that had long been attributed to only L. And, L found out from Watari that the detective had taken the same case as him. _

_Wincing as the spoon he had been using to stir sugar into his coffee noisily clashed with the ceramic edges of the mug, L stared blankly at the coffee as if it was to blame. L, the world's greatest detective, had deduced that coffee is guiltily for all the world's problems including the nameless new detective. _

_Nameless was another problem L saw in the rising star of justice. What type of detective signed their emails with a smiley face rather than an alias? At least L had a letter to formally present himself before law enforcement and judicial systems, this new individual had not even given that much. Eventually, the police officials had decided to call the detective 'Smile.' Smile was a hastily chosen and completely unwise choice of pseudonym. _

_Looking at the crime scene for the case at hand, L focused intensely. He would not allow this fool calling himself a detective to solve this case before he did. An irregularity in the pixilation of the picture drew his attention to the left edge of the photographed crime. Apparently, someone had edited the photo so there would be extra content. Zooming in on the incorrect pixilation, L tried to see what had been added. _

_Edited onto the wall of one of the buildings near the crime scene was a page of loose-leaf paper that had been ripped out of a spiral notebook. On the page, a single annoying phrase came into L's view. A hand drawn smile filled the top of the paper and the bottom held the typed words 'was here'. L lifted his thumb to his mouth and pressed roughly against his lips to increase his ability to think as he stared at the image._

_The police always gave L the information first, how did the detective edit the picture before he got it? Blinking at the sight, L wondered if he was imagining the message because of his anger at someone trying to solve his case. The blinks did nothing; the new detective had undoubtedly edited the photo. _

_Even if the image had been manipulated by the new detective, L wondered how the other detective could have possibly gained access to the crime scene photos before him. Going over various possibilities in his mind, L realized there was only one way this could be possible. The law enforcement officers had contacted 'Smile' for help on the case before they contacted him!_

_L refused to assist these police officers who did not have enough respect to contact him first. These fools flocked after the foolish detective, who did not even have the decency to create an alias for himself, rather than enlisting the services of L. Closing the picture that had bothered him so much, L decided on a plan for dealing with the show of disrespect by the law enforcement. _

_Quickly, L composed an email to tell the police station he did not want to work on this case. Of course L did not tell him that his childlike need to win was the reason he was abandoning the case, instead he listed some obscene number of other cases he was solving. _

_Waiting for the response from the police officers, L once again looked at the image. 'Smile was here,' was the simple phrase. The phrase seemed to boast of the fact that Smile had been able to reach the photo before someone else did. Irritation caused L to narrow his dark eyes; Smile was boasting that he had got the case before L did. _

_Seeing that a new message had arrived regarding the case, L turned away from the infuriating photo. _

_'Sir L,_

_Do not worry about the welfare of this case. We are glad you are spending your time on more important cases. Also, the case has already been solved by Smile.' _

_"Watari, the computer seems to have seized functioning due to an unfortunate coffee spill."

* * *

_

Sayu paused for a moment from her excessive writing. Lifting her hand to feel her face's expression, Sayu realized that the pressure on her cheeks was telling her the truth. She was smiling as she wrote down names in the notebook. The smile had fell when she realized how much she was beginning to enjoy using this little deadly notebook.

Only a few days ago she had wrote Hideki Ryuga into the notebook and became so distressed that she attempted suicide, but now writing a name in the book seemed like nothing. Maybe it was because the people she was killing deserved to die? All the people Sayu wrote in the death note were criminals; she had even killed Mikami Teru.

Since they were all criminals, killing them had to be a form of passing justice. Plus, it was not like it was Sayu's choice to kill them; she was being forced to do it. However, Sayu could not understand why she was smiling while doing something that she was 'forced' into. Beside her, Ryuk was laughing once again. He seemed to bask in her misery.

Turning towards her computer, Sayu opened her email inbox. All the messages from her brother were marked as already read but one message was not marked with the blue arrow that represented a reply. Clicking on the message to reread it, Sayu was confused. Her brother spoke of her being 'sarcastic' and 'insulting his work ethic.' Sayu had done none of these things.

Recalling the conversation with her mother, Sayu decided that Raito must have sent the email in response to something her mother sent. Sayu pressed reply and stared at the blank space to write her message. She wished she could tell him that she was the one killing criminals and she wished he would understand why she did it.

_'From: Sayu'_

_'Raito, I have a strange question to ask. If you were given the power of Kira, and knew you must use it to kill, would you become Kira?'_

Ryuk read the email as Sayu typed it and began to make that bizarre sounding laughing noise again. "Are you unsure of whom you wish to kill, Sayu? Why not go for the other Kira, Misa Amane?"

Sayu had already considered this possibility. She had been prepared to write down the girl's name but feared the fate such actions might bring for herself, her mother, and Raito. Considering what Raito had told her the night Misa came over, she knew there was a Shinigami that cared about the blonde Kira. If she killed the girl then she might be signing a declaration of death for her family and herself.

Ryuk's request to take the life of the second Kira seemed to be almost as damaging as the request he made several days ago when he wanted her to merely 'write a name on a piece of paper'. Faintly, Sayu replied to the shinigami. "I do not feel comfortable killing Misa."

The shinigami had lost interest in subject and began to beg for more apples. Looking to the bowl of apples that had earlier been in her room, Sayu was stunned at the empty container. There had been at least ten apples in the bowl less than an hour ago. Sayu would have to purchase more apples with her own money. Her mother would begin to search her room for runaway rabbits if Sayu kept requesting excessive amounts of apples.

Evasively, Sayu told Ryuk that numerous apples filled the kitchen. In an immediate hurry, the shinigami left for the kitchen. He would be back any moment but at least Sayu had a moment to think about how to handle the death note and the people that she needed to kill. Criminals deserved death for their wrongdoings but Smile had been opposing Kira…which way was right?

Recalling a joke between herself and Raito, Sayu smiled. 'Which way is right?' he had asked her about some odd hypothetical situation. The Sayu at the time had quickly answered but Raito shook his head to imply a wrong answer. Then, he reached over and raised her left hand in order for it to the point direction of right-as opposed left. 'That way is right.'

In spite of the actions that made her seem like Kira, Sayu still believed that whichever way her brother pointed was right. Now that she sent an email to Raito disclosing her situation he would point her in the 'right' direction. Sighing to herself, Sayu wrote down another criminal in the black notebook.

Stopping for a moment, Sayu wrote a note to herself at the top of the page.

_'I am not Kira.'_ She needed the reminder.

* * *

_'I am Kira.' _The i in Kira was dotted with a smiley face.

Resisting the urge to react before careful consideration, L collectively approached his thoughts. Kira's note referred to Smile, that much was obvious. It was as if Kira had overtook the title of Smile by using the simple symbol; Kira was probably laughing at the symbolic reminisce, Smile's only known grave, and receiving the pleasure of upsetting L by his actions.

L needed one thing to confirm this idea: logic. Knowing the tendencies of Kira thus far, L doubted the killer of criminals would so openly admit to his actions; much less use the opportunity to glorify himself by the symbols of those he killed. If Raito really was who he had declared himself to be then it was not likely that he was the original Kira. However, based off of Raito's personality he would not follow the flawed footprints of another Kira.

Reconsidering the smile above the i, L wondered briefly if the message was meant to have two meanings. Once again the words of Smile's messages rang in his mind. '_Guess what L? You're in me…smi-L-e.' _The word Kira had a smile 'in it'. Could it subtly be conveying the idea of 'Smile being in Kira'? That led to the question go how Smile was in Kira. Possibly, Smile wore the guise of the murderer.

Smile had stopped sending messages a week after he had spoken of a dream that had upset him. _'L have you ever thought you were dreaming but couldn't wake up.' _Following his line of reasoning regarding the 'I am Kira' message, L calculated a high probability for the 'dreaming' point in time being the same time Raito began to act as a Kira imposter.

Mimicking the same plan of action used to investigate Raito for being Kira, L decided to confront the suspicion directly. "That is intriguing," L said with his dark eyes prying for Raito's emotional reaction, "and why, might I ask, are you wearing the mask of Kira, Smile-kun?"

Raito's hesitant smile showed L the truth of his statement. Delighted by this development, L smiled. Smile was alive all this time! Not simply was he alive but he was living, breathing, and standing directly in front of him. For once a possibility with a low probability had been accurate. Raito and Smile were one and the same.

"Speak low Lowlife," Raito responded to L's question.

Working of the Kira case, L would have never thought the case could maneuver its way out of his mind for even a moment. L's mind sank so deeply into Raito's message on the card that he had temporarily forgotten the Kira case. The purposeful mispronunciation of Lawliet, which is often pronounced low-light, brought back to mind the case.

Similar to the harm that could be caused to L if someone heard the utterance of his true name, Raito's alias could cause any individual acting as Kira to kill him. L knew saying the word Smile could be detrimental but he needed proof from Raito regarding the message's meaning.

"You avoided my question."

"Misa is innocent." Raito's statement startled L; it seemed so irrelevant.

"Is she really innocent Raito? Just as innocent as Beyond is?"

"Listen to me L; tell the investigators you are no longer suspicious of Misa. She is innocent," Raito's red eyes once again looked at the numbers. Dreading the implication of the digits, he wondered why his plan had not succeeded. Once L got the message he had anticipated one of two reactions: L arresting him for being Kira or L realizing he was Smile. In the first situation Raito could save L by admitting Mikami, rather than Misa, was the second Kira.

If L realized the true meaning of the playing card and that Raito was Smile then Raito would expect a level of trust. Telling L Misa was innocent, Raito expected L to listen so that Rem would no longer see him as a threat. Sadly, this plan of action did not happen as expected.

"I think you are lying," L responded. Raito needed to reconsider his course of action. Rather than pleading with L he needed to find a way to directly stop L from being killed by Rem. All he knew was when L was going to die; there was nothing he could do to prevent the death. Then again Raito could always find away to prevent the murder notebook from working.

Possibly, a flaw existed in the rules that could allow a life to be saved. Raito remembered listening as L spoke to Rem about the death note's rules. A rule existed regarding the same name being written on more than one death notes within 0.06 seconds. In such a case the individual written will not die. Brooding over the rule, Raito felt hope in this possibility.

Raito would need to memorize the exact time above L's head and write down L Lawliet in a death note exactly 0.06 seconds before he was meant to die. The major problem would be making sure the plan worked. A few milliseconds of a mistake could cause L's death and make Raito appear to be the murderer. It was a chance Raito had to take.

"Where is the death note?"

"That information is classified."

"Classified?"

"People that lie about their identity for the purpose of getting to Kira first are liars that cannot be entrusted with a killing notebook."

"Where is it?" L could not reply without telling the truth. Watching Raito's facial expressions, L knew something was seriously wrong. There was no amusement in his eyes and his lips warped into a scowl rather than a smile.

"It has been sent to a prison for the thirteen day rule to be tested but…several pages are hidden in the compact disk drive of the main computer." Gratefully, L watched as Raito's face once again had a smile. The smile displayed the emotion of determination.

"We should get back to the others," Raito said. Although he appeared to be dismissing the idea, Raito knew he could easily access the pages once he followed L to the investigation room.

For a moment L began to walk, and then he turned to look at Raito. "Smile?"

Cunning eyes and an intelligent smile met L's eyes. "L?"

"I am glad you are alive."

"I am glad you are alive as well."

* * *

Both men joined Matsuda, Ukita, and Mogi in the main room of the investigation's headquarters. Once they arrived, Light slipped away. From a close distance he could hear L speaking to Watari about the plan to test the notebook.

Curiosity led Ukita to follow Raito to the area where he began to search for the death note pages. Finding the quarry, Raito flattened a page of the death note and opened the cap of his pen to write L's name. Two more minutes were left.

"What are you doing?" This would prove to be troublesome, he needed to focus so that he knew when to write L's name.

"Nothing of importance, please excuse yourself Ukita-san," Raito said in a voice that resembled L's in power and impassivity. Less than a minute was left.

"Are you unwell, Raito?" The persistent man asked.

Exactly at this moment Rem began to finish the w of L's last name. Beside Ukita, Raito also began to write. Within 0.05 seconds of each other, two beings that could see death wrote a name in a notebook of death. Suddenly, Ukita pulled Raito away from the paper that had saved L's life.

"He was right! You are Kira," Ukita exclaimed loud enough for the men in the other room to hear. However, L and the investigators were consumed in watching data deletion messages appear across the computer screens.

Raito cursed realizing he had forgotten Watari. But, Watari was not the only one he had forgotten.

* * *

Fade away just like our love had died  
And there is nowhere in this universe to hide...from you tonight  
I've wrestled with angels...all my life  
It's always the halos and the wings that keep you blind  
And if I fall with all the strength I held inside  
I wouldn't be out here alone tonight


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's note: Sorry if there are mistakes, I did not really proofread as much as I should of. I was excited to finish this chapter, it took far too long.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the ****lyrics.  
**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 23

The data deletion message shined into dark irises of L's eyes. Watari knew only to send out such a signal if something severe had occurred, namely death. Such a message appearing now meant that such a circumstance existed; Watari was dead. Observing the shaken expressions of the investigators, L could not help but wonder if such a disturbed expression was in his own features.

Nothing of this sort was supposed to happen now that Smile was here. Every detail L missed appeared swiftly in the eyes of the other detective. Had L missed enough details in the case to actually hinder the investigation? Impossible, it was the lack of focus caused by the suspicions towards Raito, not his own malfunction that caused such an event. L stiffened slightly; if Watari had already died then L could be next.

Caught in his thoughts, L asked the group of investigators about the location of the shinigami. Something about her actions led L to believe she was heavily involved in this. Matsuda and Mogi scurried off in search of Rem while L was left to consider every detail and uncover the story that made such a chain of events possible.

Raito and Smile are the same individual, L was certain of this much. However, he no longer had any solid Kira suspects. Misa could not have done this; she would not be intelligent enough to realize the threat caused by Watari as well as L. If she was the killer then Watari would still be alive. There was of course the possibility that a new Kira already had knowledge of Watari and his death had no connection with the testing of the thirteen day rule.

Abruptly, the flow of thoughts in L's mind stopped. He would not go that far would he? Raito would not have killed Watari just to save Kira. L trusted Smile; Watari and Smile were the only people L ever trusted. In fact, L did not even trust his successors enough to communicate with them in person. But, Raito had been trying to protect Misa and he had asked about the death note pages.

"Ukita, you are acting rashly." L heard Raito's voice from across the room. Adjusting his chair to face the voice, L noticed that Ukita handcuffed Raito and was leading him towards where L was seated.

"L! Yagami-kun is Kira," Ukita said and held out a piece of paper.

'L Lawliet,' the name was written on a piece of the death note. This could not be true. Smile would never try to kill him. Looking at Raito, L silently questioned whether he could have been deceived. Obviously, the reaction L received from Raito was far from what he expected. Raito began to laugh; he started to laugh to reveal honest amusement, free from ill intentions.

"You are funny Lowlife."

"And you are interesting in expressions of joy," the statement was meant to hold a cryptic message. Ukita would understand one message and separate meaning would be for Raito. Expressions of joy were often found in laughter and smiles; L of course was referring to smiling. Ukita would only assume L spoke of Raito's laughter but L actually was referring to Raito's alias.

"You are alive." Seeing the underlying message in Raito's words, L glanced once again at the death note page. Forty seconds had passed and L could still hear his heartbeat rattle in his chest. Ukita began to say something but L interrupted to speak to Raito.

"What did you do?"

"Saved my B-F-F-L. You know, that abbreviation fits you well. It could be best friend for life or best friend forever L." Only Smile would say something like that in this situation.

"Ukita, please unlock Raito-kun's handcuffs. There is no proof of him being Kira."

"What do you mean? Of course there is proof, he used that killer notebook and wrote what I presume to be your name," Ukita refused to release Raito.

"People are so determined to have you in handcuffs, Raito," Beyond said as he entered the doorway with a black notebook balanced on one of his fingers. "If you two are not too busy abusing Raito then glace at the writing in this notebook. I believe it belonged to the shinigami; however all I found around the notebook was sand."

Disregarding Ukita and Raito momentarily, L requested that Beyond give the notebook to him. "Would that require me walking over to where you are sitting? That seems to be a long walk," Beyond inquired. Once he received the book, L opened it.

_'Quillsh Whammy, L Lawliet, Sayu Yagami, Sachiko Yagami.' _

Leaning over to see the page, Raito's eyes seemed to suddenly become devoid of life. Happiness slipped away from his smile and suddenly he was left blank. Pulling free from Ukita with a burst of energy, Raito rushed one of the computers.

Raito turned his back to the computer to enable his cuffed hands to work the keyboard. A few seconds passed before a picture of Sayu and Sachiko appeared on the screen; neither had a number above their heads. He failed. Rem won. Kira achieved victory, Smile acknowledged defeat. "Smile, we are all going to die anyways," he muttered.

Ukita tried to apprehend Raito once again; the pathetic man fell short when Beyond stepped forward in front of Raito. "You heard what he just said! He admitted to trying to kill us all."

"I like to refer to rabid animals like you being 'put to sleep,' rather than killed," Beyond retaliated.

"What did you just say?" The energy the investigator had been targeting to Raito transferred to the rage he felt towards Beyond.

"I forgot who I was speaking to; let me say it slowly." The thought came to an end as Raito began to speak.

"Beyond, unlock the cuffs and then leave to collect the two Yagami's bodies," Raito directed.

Lost expressions laced both Ukita and L's face, at any other time Raito would have found the situation quite humorous. As Beyond unlocked the handcuffs, L tried to ask various questions. Each inquiry went disregarded, causing L to retire from the interrogating.

"Is his name Beyond, Kira?" Ukita finally asked Raito.

"Call him Kira again and you will find out as much as you want to know about me," Beyond replied as he hid the cuffs and began the venture to the exit of the room. Beyond at one point was a murderer and if Ukita continued to call Raito Kira, Beyond could explain that aspect of him in detail.

Utilizing the newfound freedom in his wrists, Raito opened a window on his computer. The window he opened displayed the emails he had received. In a mail inbox, a message from his sister stood out. Raito's inbox had received the email only hours before Rem wrote Sayu's name.

Rapidly, heated words spilled from Raito's fingertips onto the keyboard. His sister was dead; she would not be able to read the response anyways. Sayu's email had asked him to answer a question regarding his position in a hypothetical situation; Raito took a fervent position.

* * *

_'From: Raito'_

_'No matter the circumstance, the repulsive villain known as Kira deserves to die. I would rather die than become a mass murderer with an impure complex of supremacy. So if I was forced to use Kira's power to kill, I would first kill myself to achieve justice.'_

The saddest thing you could ever watch is a tear creep down a cheek and then tip to roll under the chin. Its movement is sluggish and stable then rapidly increases to a swift rate. Gazing at the printed form of the email from Raito and the deceased body of her mother, Sayu's tears flowed to the point of clogging her sensitive tear ducts.

"Why couldn't I die with her?" Sayu whimpered with her nasally voice cracking. Everything had gone wrong: Sayu's mother and father died, she was obliged to perform the actions of Kira, and her brother desired her death.

Whipping a tear from her face, Sayu threw the email from Raito to the floor. This was all his fault! He promised Sayu that they would be safe. Her mom's death had to be Raito's fault; he could not catch Kira fast enough. Raito killed their mother indirectly the day he began working as Smile. If he was not Smile than possibly the dead women that lay in front of Sayu could still be alive. Smile was wrong, Raito was not right.

Sayu had to form a plan of action. She could simply call the police to collect her mother's body; however such actions would make her property of wherever the police sent her. Clearly, Sayu found no simple pathway to take. There was also the option of destroying her mother's dead body, possibly even making Sayu herself seem dead. This plan might work.

Walking progressively towards the kitchen, Sayu breath heaved. Her life was ending; the Sayu that idolized movie stars and complained to her mother about completing small tasks died the moment she wrote down her first killing in the death note. Beginning to hum, Sayu flicked the switch on the stove's burners. Flimsy flames flew up from superheated equipment in the kitchen appliance.

Uncharacteristically serene, Sayu rested a cotton cloth to inspire the flames. The cloth suddenly caught fire and with it a massive flame burst forth. Sayu grabbed a few necessities and scurried out of the house before the entire place caught fire. Staring from a distance, more tears tickled the side of her face. Home meant nothing anyways; a home without family had no purpose.

Without family, Sayu sobbed into a jacket she had taken with her. Raito had wrote, 'no matter the circumstance, the repulsive villain known as Kira deserves to die.' Would he still feel that way if he knew his sister was committing the murders? Raito, her own brother, sought Sayu's demise.

"Are humans always this entertaining?" A Ryuk spoke, Sayu bit her lip in anger. The shinigami was troublesome.

"Ryuk, have you ventured far enough in the human world to help me travel?"

"Where do you plan on going, Sayu? A country with lots of apple trees would be somewhere I would kindly give you directions to."

"I was planning on going to Europe."

"Forty varieties of apples are grown in New England, I will lead the way," Ryuk began to fly in a certain direction with Sayu following.

Sayu stared at the shinigami for a moment, her eyes focusing on a dangling silver heart. "Your earring is quite ironic." Verbally, her comment seemed meaningless but it made Ryuk begin to laugh again. Sayu decided to continue her thought. "What you hear, what is said to a shinigami must all be misery; nothing with a heart speaks to you."

* * *

Matsuda and Mogi returned to the main investigation room. Their exhaustion was demonstrated in their heavy breathing. "We could not find the shinigami anywhere but we did see Misa at the entrance of the building, she wanted Raito to speak to her," Matsuda announced.

Glancing around, Mogi questioned their missing coworker. "Is Ukita looking for the shinigami as well?"

Placidly, L turned to face Mogi. "He is handling Watari." The statement was true enough, after an extensive argument L had sent the man off to care for Watari's remains. "Raito-kun, would you like to go see Amane-san?"

"That would probably be best," Raito turned to Matsuda and Mogi, "prepare to apprehend Misa for charges as an accomplice to Kira."

The two investigators glanced at Raito in astonishment. Not only had he accused Misa as Kira, he had also openly commanded them. Moving their gaze to L, they saw that he had no reaction to Raito's words. Evidently, there had been an alteration of the organization within the headquarters. Both L and Raito were conveying a dictating presence.

Standing with a fake smile on his face, Raito left the room in search of the blonde Kira. Matsuda had spoken about her being at the entrance to the building, she was probably still there. When he reached the highly secured glass doors separating the headquarters from the outside world, the blonde hair and black outfit stood out. He meandered through the security settings of the building before joining Misa.

"Raito, your alive I am so happy! Misa begged Rem to keep you alive," the girl screeched and threw herself towards Raito. Beside his earlier sorrow, Raito smiled. Soon Misa would no longer care for him; all it would take was a single utterance.

"Misa, I need to tell you something. I am not Kira," Raito whispered and waited for her to release her grasp in disgust.

"Rem told me that earlier! My love is undying no matter who you are." As Misa scribbled the words into her vocalization, Raito frowned. So much for her not caring about him anymore, Raito smiled at his wrong thoughts.

"Misa you are under arrest for charges of being the second Kira, in a few moments the investigators will detain you," his line of speech was cut off by Misa.

"Raito please do not arrest me. I realize Kira was wrong, I understand it," Misa briefly looked at Raito to see if he was listening before she continued. "If a wall has a hole in it, a just person would not make a bigger hole to destroy one termite. Kira was digging a bigger hole in the wall; he was breaking down the structure of society."

Watching as the second Kira's eyes focused on him, Raito tried to decipher the message behind the words. Then, he realized Misa was far too limited in the area of intelligence to make up that high-quality of a lie. Adding a secret message would cause her brain to implode from too much thought. In a strange way, Raito almost pitied Misa.

"Your parents were killed by a criminal that went unpunished until Kira came, correct?"

"Yes they were but the man that killed them was actually caught by someone else first. Someone else got him, all Kira did was kill a runaway. The detective, Smile had discovered who the criminal was. Kira was just a murderer."

"Smile?" Thinking about this, Raito smiled. He needed to guard his identity from Misa more than everyone else; if she found out she would be devoted to him to a greater level. "I am sure you could be forgiven if you worked with the investigation team to find Kira."

"Misa wants to help!" The blonde shirked.

* * *

_User 807354: Smile is far better._

_User 564791: L is a realist, Smile makes too many assumptions._

_User 186532: I personally like Smile._

_User 564791: You only like him because of the graphics he used in the Kira broadcast._

_User 807354: And you only don't like him because his name implies happiness._

_User 564791: I'll have you know, I am a very happy person._

_User 186532: I don't think our conclusion should be based on personal preferences._

_User 186532 invites User 807354 to an online game._

_User 564791 signs out, offline message: White is simply a combination of every color.

* * *

_

What if I…got right into  
My mind's velocity  
What if I…finally discovered  
The rules of Eternity

What if I tell you  
What we live for…what we die for


	24. chapter 24

**Author's note: Thanks anyone and everyone who have reviewed. Sadly, I will not continue writing this. xD Just kidding, wanted to see how many people actually read the a/n. Hey, um...anyone interested in betaing this fic?  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 24

_With his eyes glued to the object in question, Raito gazed in a perturbed manner. The strawberry was the size of his entire head, if not bigger. Remembering the careless decision to allow Beyond to have the equipment to create a greenhouse inside the building, Raito could only guess the extensive work Beyond had put into engineering this impractical piece of fruit._

_According to the bet, Beyond would no longer 'buy' strawberry jam if Raito learned the languages first. However, Raito had not expected him to spend the entire time period between the beginning and end of the bet making a strawberry that is ideal for making jam._

_"Would you like to try some?"_

_"You are actually offering me some of your jam?" Raito questioned as he turned to face the jam covered Beyond. The question made Beyond smile and walk towards the room that had been converted for Beyond to grow his strawberries. Peering into the room, Raito held back a gasp. Twenty five strawberry plants sat with watermelon sized strawberries hanging in supports Beyond had constructed._

_ "I have plenty, it would be an offense on my part to let any of the strawberries turn brown before they are jammed. Since I only have four jars, I have to consume the jam hastily," Beyond said before shoving a handful of jam at Raito._

_"You do not expect me to eat that out of your hand, do you?" Smirking at Raito, Beyond tried to shove some red jelly into his mouth. When Raito moved away from the hand, it splashed the jam onto his school uniform._

_"¿Lucha del alimento?" Beyond asked the question in Spanish and in a tone that implied concealed laughter. Retaliating, Raito tried to grab hold of the jar Beyond was holding. Beyond had asked him if he wanted a food fight and through his actions Raito agreed._

_Within minutes, the room was covered in a thick strawberry substance as were the two occupants of the space. "Pienso las miradas de este color agradables en el cuarto," Raito stated sarcastically. He had said that the room looked nice in the new color the two had painted. Leaning back, Raito made a jam angel in the food that coated the floor. Beyond followed suit and made a similar imprint._

* * *

"There is no house."

"What are you referring to?"

"Your house is ashen, black carbon and metals."

"All of it?"

"I am sorry, Raito. The bodies of your mother and sister are no longer existent."

"I understand, are there police on the scene?"

"Yes, they have located a probable cause of the fire."

"And what might that be?"

"Due to the clean source and sudden nature, they are leaning towards arson."

"When?"

"Approximately one hour ago is the estimate."

A silent air filled the phone line. Forty five minutes ago Raito had sent a message to a deceased respondent, an hour ago a house burned down. Somehow, the events seemed to connect in Raito's mind.

Clicking the button to hang up the phone without any form of closing salutation, Raito stared at the ground. His mother and sister were now ash. Flowing with the breath of wind, the two now existed as remnants and likely evidence for an arson investigation. In the distance, Raito could hear the same dirge that played for Sayu and for his loving mother. Sirens from police cars and fire trucks sung the song of death and sorrow.

"Raito, are you upset?" Looking at the model, the Kira, and the young girl, Raito flashed a grin.

"I am fine Misa."

"Misa wants to help investigate now."

As much as Misa annoyed him, Raito admitted mentally his gratefulness for her attitude. Although her bubbly mind-set even in the face of death disgusted him in the past, Ratio enjoyed the lively behavior at present. Gazing in Misa's eyes, Raito recalled the eyes of Beyond-a killer. She would become another addition to Smile's cabinet of redeemed criminals.

Focusing his mind on the seemingly mindless girl, Raito gripped his emotion at the news from Beyond. An impassive attitude was the key to a detective's line of work. Raito had the ability to mask his emotions with the same empty face L used. He needed to focus primarily on what was to come.

Raito decided Misa's earlier comment merited a response. "We can go inside in a moment; I need to go inside first to inform the investigators about our agreement."

"Agreement?" The chirped question came from Misa.

"You will be assisting to gain pardon for the acts preformed as Kira."

"Those meanies won't listen, they don't like Misa."

"Do not concern yourself with whether or not they will listen, Misa." With that statement, Raito left Misa and entered the building. Almost directly inside, Matsuda and Mogi stood gabbing with hints amusement. Raito was glad they found something amusing because he surely did not.

Softly knocking on the wall, Raito gained the attention of the investigators. "Matsuda if you are not too busy with this discussion, please compile information on the arson case at the Yagami residence. Also, Misa will not be arrested for her service as Kira. She will be helping with the investigation to earn forgiveness."

"Forgiveness for someone who killed countless individuals? Some of the criminals had families, children, do you expect us to forget what has been done?" Mogi seemed enraged. How unfortunate, Mogi being upset would hinder time allotted for investigating.

* * *

_User 186532: Did you hear about Watari?_

_User 807354: No. What happened, Matt?_

_User 564791: You should have assumed Mello wouldn't know._

_User 186532: Kira killed him._

_User 807354: What! What about L?_

_Admin 325600: How did you find that information?_

_User 186532 signs out._

_User 564791: Roger, it is nice to see you online. What is the answer to Mello's question?_

_Admin 325600: I am unsure, Near.  
_

* * *

Watari had always been by his side, a guardian and subtly a comrade. When L found he was alone in the investigation room, he pondered who could replace Watari. The answer was quite obvious: no one. Looking at the remains of the sweet treats Watari had brought him, L felt a sorrow tugging at his heart. Tears would never come, but L knew the little sleep he did get would elude him.

There was so much Watari did. Likely, a building this large had ridiculous bills for utilities. Watari had never made him see the money needed for something. L did not even know how much wealth could be found in his banking accounts. Contacting world leaders and finding cases had always been Watari's duty; L only returned the favor by using his mind to help those Watari communicated with.

L had begun to retrieve the information that Watari had deleted before he died while Raito was speaking to Misa, so the computers were once again in use. Studying the screen of his own computer, L saw something he had never noticed. On the screen of his computer, a screensaver displayed a tranquil forest with small woodland animals.

He did not recall choosing this picture, it must have been Watari. Occasionally, when L spoke to Watari in the past, he remembered Watari mentioning how much him and Roger admired nature. Roger, the man that watched over Whammy's orphanage, kept insect bookmarks in his office at all times.

In fact, L was sure the two had met and bonded as friends due to their appreciation for the beautiful things nature offered. L could imagine them now, drinking tea in a forest under a canopy of life. Soon, L would need to contact Roger. Watari likely sent out a signal before his death to alert the residents at Whammy's.

As L's thoughts continued, Raito entered the room. His face was placid, filled with a generic smile and a fake impassiveness to the recent happenings. Walking until he stood beside L, the detective disguised as a teen waited for him to speak. "Raito-kun, hiding emotion does not fit you."

"Do you still think of me as Raito? Hiding emotion is me, just as it is every individual with a shred of equanimity."

Instead of responding, L rose from his chair and turned to Raito. Reaching the other detective, L extended his arms and pulled Raito into an odd hug. Wordlessly, Raito stood still as if the black haired detective had not embraced him. L seemed to be waiting for a response because he did not release him. Close to Raito's ear, L began to speak. "I know all too well what you speak of," the words came.

"Of course, Lowlife." L finally pulled away from Raito and sat down.

"I heard what happened," L spoke in a way that attempted a consoling tone, "when you spoke to Matsuda and Mogi I was watching the camera footage."

"You heard about the fire, Misa, or both?"

"Both."

Nodding to acknowledge this statement, Raito sat beside L. "Is the fact that Misa is not being convicted upsetting you?"

"If she is a Kira, she is a criminal and should be sentenced for her transgressions. However, B is as well. Smile does not show himself to be a just individual."

"You are calling me unjust for saving a life, two lives, which would have been wasted in jail or received the death sentence. What is a just individual then, L?"

"Your father was just, as was Watari."

"So must I die to be considered a worker of justice?" Raito commented harshly, and turned to face L.

"When you smile," the words from L's mouth were spoken in a murmur Raito could not hear, "you do the world justice."

Ignoring the other detective, Raito faced the opposite direction and clicked a few buttons on a nearby computer to start a search for recent Kira killings. L's quick work restoring the computer's data was commendable but Raito refused to tell L this. A bit of jubilant fury, jubilant in the respect that he no longer felt sorrow, continued to work on Raito's emotions. L had been kind in giving him a hug; however some of his statements were aggravating.

Surely, L would not have told Smile several mounts before any of the words he had said today. Was it the change from texting to speaking in person or had L realized his folly in befriending Smile? Had L always thought of Smile as unjust, as one caught up in emotion?

It was unfortunate that the only people Raito had left in his life were a criminal and a strange friend. Perhaps L felt the same about the death of Watari, Raito was not sure if the detective had any more direct supporters. There were of course the three brothers L mentioned once in a text message. Yet, in all the time the two were working together, Raito had never seen or heard anything else regarding those individuals.

Combating the yawn that had worked its way into his mouth from the exhausting day's events, Raito leaned towards the computer and skimmed through pages of information. Astonishingly, the results of Raito's search were not anticipated. Instead of routine killings, the killer was fluctuating. Stopping and starting again the deaths occurred. Also, the Kira had begun to kill swiftly without considering the severity of the crimes.

This new Kira did not seem to mirror the prior Kira's pattern of hourly deaths nor did the individual care that the actions differentiated the new and old Kiras. Oddly enough, the lack of severity in the criminals dying showed this Kira was similar to the Yotsuba Kira; whoever was killing now did not actually support Kira's cause. If this was true, there was only a matter of time before the intentions of this murderer came to the forefront.

Raito took note of the sound of footsteps behind him. Mogi and Ukita were speaking, both with spiteful tones. Either they did not concur with each other or they did not agree with something Raito and L had done. Hearing his own name, Raito smiled. Feeling a sense of popularity, Raito looked towards them.

"Anything I can help you with?" Raito queried.

"If L won't believe you are Kira, we'll prove it ourselves. And, we'll use you saving Misa as proof," Ukita speedily recited the words as if the two had practiced.

"Sounds like fun. I have always wanted to prove some absurd lie true, like unicorns and fairies. Hey, L and I will not stop you from trying to prove I am Kira. Shinigami are real so maybe everything we know to be true is actually an alternate space-time continuum," Raito paused as he heard a small noise admitted from the detective beside him. L was trying to stop himself from letting out a laugh.

"He has lost his mind," Ukita's under breath comment said. Despite the low voice, Raito heard him.

"Well, I have never actually seen my mind and am not suicidal enough to attempt such so I suppose it is lost. How do I know whether it's under my skull?" The two investigators were shocked at Raito's speaking. His sarcasm and disrespectful tone was abnormal.

Another individual entered the room behind the investigators; Beyond was carrying in a large bag. "My apologizes for the wait I brought L a little strawberry to make him feel better."

Suddenly, L was facing Beyond with an expectant face. Raito was sure L had missed the 'a strawberry' part of the statement, otherwise he would be questioning why he was being limited to a single piece of fruit. Watching as Beyond reached both hands into the bag, Raito smiled. He was looking forward to seeing L's reaction.

The black haired detective's eyes stared at the bag, it must be a large package of strawberries for Beyond to put so much effort into removing them. At last the contents of the bag were revealed, a four decimeter strawberry came into view. L got out of his chair and walked towards Beyond; he wanted to poke the fruit to see if it was an authentic strawberry.

It was real.

* * *

People rushed in tightly packed formations. Shifting according to their desired destination, the crowd constantly moved. Around the pack, announcements sounded for flights leaving and flights coming in. Those that had arrived early for their flights lounged in the uncomfortable chairs and spoke to family members.

Beside one of the various food stands that had been set up for travelers, square tables held people. A group of American tourists pointed at a young Japanese girl and marveled as if it was their dream to see someone from Japan in Japan. Their pointing suddenly stopped when they noticed the girl was insane; she was talking to herself.

"Now what?"

"All of those people are heading in the direction we want to go. By using the death note, you could have one of them hand over their tickets and money."

"But I don't know any of their names."

"You could…in just a moment you can know all their names if you complete a deal with me."

Sayu sighed and nodded, yet another deal to be made with Ryuk.

* * *

Hate the mind, regrets are better left unspoken  
For all we know, this void will grow  
And everything's in vain, distressing you though it leaves me open  
Feels so right, but I'll end this all before it gets me

Call you name everyday when I feel so helpless  
I've fallen down but I'll rise above this, rise above this


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's note: Wow...this is the longest it has taken to update. Sorry. :) I would like to thank my new b****eta, _L Ninja_, for making this chapter sound amazing and correcting grammatical problems. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the "Dark Moor" lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 25

Raito's fingers fiddled with the computer keys; his one hand was glued to the down arrow as he occasionally pulled down the screen of text. Listening to the click of the down arrow, L could not help but feel a sense of boredom. The emotion radiated from Raito so L was forced to feel the repetitious nature of the work. Despite the feelings L experienced he had to continue working.

Denying his own thought, L did not make any move to complete the work he was telling himself to do. Apparently, his eyes would much rather watch Raito work than watch a screen of words. Maybe L had digested too much of the strawberry and his body was acting sluggish in response.

"Raito-kun?" L's statement caused Raito to turn hastily; L assumed he had been enthusiastically waiting for the interruption. "Seeing how the other investigators have left or went to sleep for the night, I wish to speak with you about some subjects you have yet to clarify."

"That is acceptable. However, be aware I do not feel obliged to answer all your questions and I will answer without skewing my words." Examining the words, L felt slightly perturbed. Plenty of people had lied to the detective but none had directly admitted they may not tell the truth while being questioned. Then again, it was Smile. Such words sounded distinctly like something Smile would say.

"Why was Mikami your suspect?" L was using a classic idea for interrogating; begin with a subject obsolete from the current happenings. Basically, the idea is to make the questioning seem like a discussion.

"I had reason to believe he may be Kira," a smile spread across Raito's face when he spoke the words. Even Misa could have figured out the reason why Raito suspected Mikami; L's attempt at questioning wanted a less implicit answer.

Lifting his thumb to his mouth in intense concentration, L tried to soothe his aggravation and move on. L recalled an event and decided to base his next question on that occurrence. "How did you find out my name?"

"You have it written above your head." L felt like striking the sarcastic teen.

"Of course I do, did Kira also have the fact that they were Kira written above their head?"

"Why yes, Kira did."

"Is there any questions I can ask that you will respond seriously to?"

"Two plus two is a good question, I would respond four. Though, if you were to say twenty minus two I might say zero."

There was a brief lack of response from L before he continued. "It was quite risky to give me a message that stated you had committed murder as Kira, even if the true message was not to that effect."

"Is that a question?"

"Does Smile need a question to respond?"

"Does L need a response to question?"

"You can convince someone of any point if the only medium used is questions."

Without waiting for any of L's other questions, Raito turned away. L understood the swift return to work. Kira killed criminals continuously, the detectives should be working in the same manner; continuously. In spite of L's mental pleas to work on the case, a haze clouded his thoughts. His mind tried to recall some point of information he had forgotten, something he had missed.

Many tasks L had to complete bombarded his mind but none of them were what he had forgotten. L still needed to call Roger, he still needed to track down Kira, he still needed to find someone to help him with Watari's duties, and he still needed to find out more about Smile… Smile. That was what L had forgotten. Smile and L had an agreement, a pact of sorts.

"Raito-kun, Mikami was Kira."

"That is correct, he was the original Kira according to the information I have gathered."

"So Raito-kun found Kira first, correct?"

"Yes, why is that of significance?" Raito's seemed to be trying to sort out what the seemingly random statements meant. L had asked about Kira and then shifted to something about the order of the detective's findings.

Finally clearing his mind of the event he had been recalling, L returned to the work at hand. The first matter to handle was Roger. If L did not contact the man soon, Whammy's would begin to believe that L had died due to Kira's actions. Without answering the question Raito had posed, L stood up and leftthe room to make a call.

Numbers slipped from L's fingers to the screen of the phone in prompt pace. Since L had been an orphan at Whammy's, the phone number had never changed and as long as the establishment continued its service to the children the number would probably remain the same. A single harsh ring pierced through the empty hall and L pulled his hand away from his ear in reaction to the volume.

Hearing the click on the other line and a discontinuation of the ringing, Lknew someone had picked up the phone. "Who am I speaking to?" L stated.

"You are alive." Holding back his response, L smiled. Raito's, Smile's influence on him seemed evident. He had been considering the response, 'no I am dead.' Instead of responding, L waited for Roger to continue to speak. "Can you confirm your identity in person?"

"At the risk of revealing the identity of L to a potential Kira?"

"I am well aware of the risk. However, since you have revealed yourself to select Japanese investigators, it may be possible if not probable that someone is imitating your voice."

"I understand," L stated before pressing the top of the flip phone against the keypad with the two fingers he had been using to hold the phone. By closing the phone, L had ended a conversation he did not wish to continue.

Through the brief duration of the conversation, L had discovered information that could be beneficial. Roger wanted him to return to Whammy's. This did not seem like too much to ask but L knew the man would not have asked if there was not a definite, underlying reason. Possibly, the children at Whammy's were conducting their own investigation based on the information Watari sent them?

Sitting in a room near the hall he had been speaking in, L considered this further. The last time he visited Whammy's the top student had been Beyond. Now, three extraordinary children had taken on the top three places. Near, Mello, and Matt were what they wanted to be referenced as. In their names alone, L saw the stark contrast to previous students who imitated L by choosing a letter as a title.

L leaned back in his chair for a moment and looked around. Beside the area L sat, a window displayed the sunset. The passing of time had not been apparent to L, without Watari to alert him of the time minutes and hours were skewered. Somehow, it was hard to believe the sun was rising now when the investigators recently left.

Poets, writers, and artists often viewed such an event as the first indication of a new day or a change in the routine of life. Regardless of L's strictly logical way of examining the simple rotation of the earth on its axis, he could realize the elements of the new day. Soon, he would be on his way to see the Whammy's children, the current Kira was being less careful with killings, and Smile was with him.

Returning to the room Raito had been in earlier, L took back the third element of the new day. Smile had vanished. Although he had no qualms about the other detective leaving, L wanted to know where he went. Raito's house had been destroyed and any other location held the risk of being spotted by looking around the room with an accusing gaze, L had a natural reaction to the loneliness in the fortress like building: paranoia.

When his eyes traced the room, he caught sight of Raito's computer which was on and blinking with a notification. Stepping over gradually, L finally looked  
at the screen. 'I went somewhere. See you later. - :),' was the message the computer displayed. From the time L had met Raito, he had began to debate whether Raito or Smile was more irritating.

Now that the two world famous irritators had become one, L finally faced a force that could tear apart his composed emotional stability. Raito left. That made no sense, especially in the middle of a murder investigation. L wondered if he had a lead he did not wish to share and was pursuing this lead in another area. Such things were understandable. However, Raito had left him to take care of the task force and all of their problems.

* * *

Airplanes were dreadfully awful, there existed no apples and many of the humans had fallen asleep to admit strange noises. Ryuk watched forlornly as a child typed on a computer that had a logo of an apple with a bite out of the side. If only the apple was real, he would be overjoyed. Beside him, the Death Note owner tensed and held a tight grip to the armrest.

Surely, Sayu should not have an irrational fear of flight when she knew there was not going to be a crash. As a new acquirer of the eyes, the girl could see that no one in the plane was going to die in the near future. Ryuk found it ironic that the girl who was saved from the pen of a shinigami quaked at the thought of being several thousand feet above the ground.

Ryuk had heard of Rem's death on the same day it happened, the whole shinigami realm had heard; news travels fast for a race that is always bored. Reflecting on the details, Ryuk could remember the mention of Sayu's name being written in the Death Note. Many of the shinigami were amazed by the prospect of a human living through their names being written but Ryuk knew it was because of a lucky accident.

Soon after first writing in the Death Note, Sayu had attempted killing herself and in the process misspelled her name enough times for the Death Note to be rendered ineffective. Ryuk had not known this rule worked when more than one Death Note were being used to kill a person but apparently it did. Hopefully, this did not mean Ryuk would be unable to write down the girl's name when he finally decided to.

From the side of Ryuk's vision, a beautiful sight toyed with his eyes. A book someone was reading had a cover that displayed a ripe red apple being held out by two hands. He despised this book in its entirety; how could the cover be so malicious?

* * *

"Thank you for responding to my phone call," the short haired girl spoke with a strained voice. When looking for a phone number to call, someone that she knew would listen, Takada had been desperate. She had searched lists of cell phone numbers of old classmates and among these numbers had found Raito.

Remembering his intelligence, Takada had tried to forget the oddities of their conversations. One statement Raito had made still sent quivers through her nerves to think about: 'I see death.' Disregarding this and looking for a way to get in touch with one of the most intelligent people she had ever met, Takada immediately called Raito. The voice on the line seemed busy but Takada required a listening ear immediately.

"I was surprised you had the number or even thought to call me."

"I was also surprised. I need to speak to you about something related to Kira," Takada missed the sudden intent focus in Raito's eyes, "do you support him?"

"No."

"Good, wonderful. I think I have seen her. Kira was in an airport a few hours ago, boarding a flight."

"Relax and continue, Takada. I am listening."

"My friend was visiting from Italy and had been planning on returning. I took her to the airport and walked through the checkpoints with her. After that, there was this girl. This strange little girl that my friend was talking to and then suddenly my friend handed over her ticket for the flight. Before I could question my friend, she had fallen to the ground," the steady voice stopped in an intake of breath, "she had died."

"A heart attack I presume?" When Takada nodded, Raito continued. "This question may seem odd: did your friend have any personal contact with the girl prior to the incident? By that I mean contact in which a name would be exchanged?"

"No, I am almost completely sure she did not. Why?"

"I am not sure if you recall the broadcast L made soon after Kira began his killings. At that point in time, L discovered Kira kills by knowing the name and face of the person, later this changed because killings were happening without knowledge of the names."

"You seem to have been closely following the Kira case, Yagami-san. No, my friend did not give away her name."

"Can you provide any description of this female Kira?"

"There was not much to define her. She was young, and had the typical features of a young Japanese girl. And from her clothing, I cannot call to mind any memorable features."

"Do you have any idea where she was headed?"

"The ticket my friend had was suppose to make a detour in Fareham, which is just south of Winchester, England."

Interesting, the location L had been speaking on the phone about was also in Winchester. Raito had followed L and listened when he spoke to Roger. Soon after, when L settled down in one of the rooms of the building, Beyond had contacted Raito to inform him of a bizarre phone call from a certain friend of Raito. Reacting to the information from Beyond, Raito left a note and headed out.

Before meeting up with the individual that had left the frantic and teary message, Raito had taken the chance to get Beyond's perspective on L speaking on the phone. Hearing the details of the conversation, Beyond had said L must have been speaking to someone from Whammy's. Raito had researched this institution in the past, when he found Watari's name.

Public databases filed Whammy's House in England as the property of Quillsh Whammy. Without scrutinizing the information flow from Whammy's House, Raito would have seen Whammy's House as simply a foster home or orphanage. However, enough textbooks and money flowed through the place to fund a prominent scientific research center. Whammy's assembled the world's greatest young neglected minds.

Continuing the conversation, Ratio spoke. "Did you tell any of the police about the ticket accouter?"

"That would have been quite foolish, wouldn't it? Any of the officers could be sided with Kira."

"So, hypothetically, could I?"

"I suppose the police seemed more corrupt," Takada's comment stopped short as Raito's phone began to ring. Her mournful mood briefly broke with the ringtone; it was a recording of someone saying that Raito had a startling smile. When he heard it, Raito let out a curse and said something under breath about 'Beyond recording' something. The reaction was humorous.

* * *

With the winds of the sea  
always blowing from the east  
three boats dare to face  
just a will, a belief  
which could cross the deep abyss  
to discover a new world  
saving humanity


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's note: Most countries had spring break over the last week or few weeks; this chapter gives a quick peek at what Smile did during spring break. I would like to thank _L Ninja_ for her work as beta for this chapter.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own the "Acceptance" lyrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 26

_There's a funny little thing that happens when everything is right: everything seems to be wrong. Smile had planned every move, so they assumed nothing could go wrong. Rod Ross moved his mafia members towards the location, made a signal, and watched as his men stormed into the building where the police headquarters was stationed. Ross could hear shots being fired, from the heavy pitch and steady fire he could also tell all the shots were coming from his men._

_Instructing them not to kill the police officers, Smile had given him the location of the investigation of the mafia. Ross had gone against Smile's instructions and ordered his men to shoot the officers. After arriving, Ross felt ashamed to actually enter the building. Footsteps sounded behind him and Ross grabbed a gun, then he turned to face a single boy._

_"That was not very nice, to kill the officers," the boy whispered. _

_"No, this is not very nice." Ross raised his gun to face the child and the witness of his crime, readying the ammunition to fire. Although he did not want to break an agreement with Smile, Ross had by no means retaliated from violence and began to care. _

_Seeming thrilled by the weapon breathing death on his neck, the brunette let a fear-provoking laugh escape him. Anyone other than Ross would have staggered backward at such a menacing noise from a child. "Dwhite Godon," continued the undeterred boy as he stared in an amused manner, "why did you refuse to accompany your men on their massacre?"_

_Ross stopped and lowered his gun. No one knew his name. "Who are you?"_

_"You can call me Ramilo. I am surprised by you, Godon. As a mafia leader, shouldn't you know never to lower your gun till the enemy is dead?" Ross watched as the boy swung a hidden gun from behind his back and pressed it against his head. "Good night, sleep tight." A click sounded and an enormous pressure slammed into Ross's head._

_Ross felt a liquid dripping down the side of his head. Before his eyes completely blurred to black, Ross heard the boy whisper. "I don't like people that break promises, especially ones that would dare to hurt a thirteen year old child in the process." The boy was Smile. Ross collapsed._

_Smiling to himself, Raito looked at the man. That man probably thought he was dead, the magic of paintball guns. Raito had known where the pressure point in the man's head was and had hit it with the paintball, causing him to pass out temporarily. Walking away from the scene and over to a park bench across the street, Raito leaned down to pick up a bag under the bench._

_Inside of the bag, Raito found the laptop he had left earlier in the day and typed out a short message to the real police. Raito had tricked the mafia leader into thinking Smile was assisting them so he could get their help in the future. Then, Raito gave them the location of a building and set up a series of stuffed clothing in chairs to look like police officers. When every mafia member went in, Raito locked the door._

_He had assumed at least one person would stay behind but he did not expect to have to take on Rod Ross. Raito looked at the message he had sent to the police._

_'Can the police pick up some stuff at my current location? Track my computer. - :)'_

_Yawning softly, Raito tried to think of something else to do during spring break. _

* * *

Raito looked to see who the caller on the phone was. A flashing unidentified number appeared; it was either L or a sales person, in both scenarios he did not feel like answering. Looking up at the questioning gaze of Takada, he handed the phone to her. "Can you answer it?" He watched as Takada pressed the button to answer.

"Raito's phone, Takada speaking." While she paused, Raito tried to listen in on what the other side was saying. "What do you mean 'all he is doing is wasting time'?" Takada's face twisted into a scowl as she heard the other line talk. "I am not a suspect of being Kira; you have no right to accuse me of something like that!" She was definitely talking to L.

Raito extended his hand to ask for the phone but she refused. "Who do you think you are?" Poor Takada, she was likely suffering from fluctuations in emotion because of the traumatic death of her friend. Who knows what strange ideas L was torturing her with. "You think you are better than the great detective Smile? Yeah right! How did you even get this number?" Grinning at this half of the conversation, Raito imagined L right now.

Likely, L sat in one of the chairs at headquarters and the task force had arrived for the day's work. He would be sitting in his signature position and talking on the phone, holding it awkwardly for all to see. All of the task force members, especially Matsuda, were probably straining to hear the conversation. Abruptly interrupting Raito's image, Takada nearly hurled the phone towards him after she gave up at talking to L.

"Good morning, L." Takada's whole countenance smeared into an appearance of disbelief. Possibly, revealing who was on the line could put L at risk. Realistically, there was very little chance Takada would work against L when someone important to her had died by the hands of Kira. Unless, of course, she was lying about her friend. Raito pondered this for a moment and neglected to listen to L speaking.

Considering Takada's speech as being lies made the conversation change significantly. She could have even chosen Raito to call because she knew he had some involvement in the Kira case; because of his late father's position and his disappearance from his usual activities following the Kira case. Raito doubted Takada had enough intelligence to plan something like this for Kira.

However, if she had planned the events to support Kira, Raito's statement of L's identity would still not be endangering to L. To the contrary, such actions might help protect the other detective. Takada could try to use Raito to bring her closer to L, in order to kill him. And, since Raito would be aware of her intentions based on this desire to meet L, Raito could show her whatever 'L' he wanted to.

"Are you there?" Jolting at the sudden sound from the phone, Raito sat in shock. He did not even know L could raise his tranquil, monotonous voice. "Can you hear me?"

"No."

"If you cannot comprehend my statement, how can you respond?"

"It's quite a difficult process but I will explain. I require absolute silence for this explanation, do not interrupt. To respond I," Raito paused for a few minutes and then whispered, "Say no."

"Someone is being exceptionally rude, as was his friend. His friend seems to be an unnecessary distraction from the Kira case."

"What I do now is none of your concern. You didn't expect me to stay around and assist you with finding Kira, did you?"

"Where are you going to live now?"

"Once again, it is none of your concern." Realizing the harsh tone of his statements, Raito nearly apologized. However, showing such a repentant attitude in public would prove to be injurious.

"Smi-"

"I suggest you not use that term," Raito quickly interrupted at the name Smile. Would L really be so foolish to give away Raito's identity so blatantly?

"You called me L, are you not at a position in which no one can hear?"

"I am not."

"How unfortunate," L stated before the phone line on Raito's side went dead. L had hung up.

* * *

Glaring at the phone, L felt a surge if anger. How could Smile openly reveal his identity and then protest to him doing the same? If Raito did not trust this 'Takada' he should not have provided her with a direct link to L. L had not been using anything to mask his voice or the location of his call. He trusted Raito, so such precautions would have been unnecessary.

At the moment, a possible Kira supporter or a Kira could have an edge on him. Reclining in the chair he was sitting in, L turned to face the investigators who had gathered in the room. L had been careful not to allow them to hear his conversation but he could tell Ukita and Matsuda were straining to listen.

"Who was on the phone? It seemed to involve Kira," Mogi asked.

"Smile was on the phone. I would like to inform you that I will be leaving for a week to enlist help from individuals who can assist in the efforts to find and stop Kira."

"I thought Smile was already assisting you with the Kira case," Matsuda quickly responded.

Cringing at the assumption that he was having assistance, L formed a calm response. "Smile will no longer be helping my investigation. The help I wish to enlist is from friends of Watari's."

"Where is Kira? I apologize; you are calling him Raito still. Innocent until proven guilty…Where is he?" Mogi questioned, bringing to L's mind the accusations the investigators kept making. It seemed ironic that the group finally agreed Raito was Kira after L had proven he was guiltless.

Recalling his conversation with Raito, the black haired detective smiled. If Raito could give away L's identity, L could do the same to Raito. "Raito is," L paused, not able to complete the sentence in the intended way, "set on accompanying me. He is preparing."

Both Mogi and Ukita's faces showed obvious displeasure with this statement. Quite likely, they had been an anticipating a full out interrogation of Raito when L told them he would be leaving. This would not be possible if Raito went along with him. Looking away from the two plotting investigators and Matsuda, L searched for a flight to Winchester and ran a final check on the Kira killings.

An odd pattern appeared in the check of killings; Kira's location had changed. Since L's discovery of his location in Japan, over fifty percent of the deaths occurred in the local prisons. Now, the pattern was reversed. Most of the deaths were not local and very few occurred in the country. Kira appeared to be a step ahead of L in travel arrangements; maybe Kira had a travel agent?

"Where's Misa?" Matsuda thought aloud as he looked at the camera images in front of L. Peering at the same images, L tilted his head briefly in thought.

"Check the storage compartment where the Death Notes are held to ensure both have not been tampered with, it is on the third floor" L stated and immediately all three investigators began to dash towards the area the notebooks had been transferred to following Raito's use of the one Death Note to save L.

Within minutes, Matsuda returned and breathed in a heavy lungful of air before he spoke. His face was petrified as he relayed the findings, "Both of the Death Notes are gone."

_

* * *

Admin 325600: L is alive._

_User 186532 sent a sound clip of an audience cheering. _

_User 564791: That noise interrupted my building process._

_User 807354: Your building toys are too childish anyways._

_User 564791: Too childish? I am several years younger than you._

_Admin 325600: He is coming here._

_User 186532: To Whammy's?_

_User 807354: Really?!_

_User 564791: Yes, I am really younger than you. Did something make you believe otherwise?_

_User 807354: I was talking to Roger, dim-wit!_

_User 564791 reports User 807354 on the grounds of 'offensive language.' _

_User 564791 signs off with message 'If you can't beat the game, if you can't solve the puzzle, then you are just a loser.'

* * *

_

"Why did you bring that with you, meanie-san?"

Dragging the model along with him, Beyond did not respond. Such questions did not merit a response and he could not give a reasonable answer without leading Misa to start screeching about the fact that they were going to see Raito.

"Why won't you answer any of Misa's questions? You won't tell me where we're going or why you took the Death Note with you! I hope you are not planning on trying to become a Kira with my help; I refuse-"

Finally, the blond stopped speaking; she had noticed Raito in the distance. In an instant, she pulled free of Beyond's grasp and charged towards Raito as if she thought Beyond was a criminal and Raito was her hero. Which was relatively true, because of Raito's work Misa could live despite her work as a Kira and Beyond was previously a criminal.

As Misa scampered towards Raito like a frantic mouse trying to escape a snake, Beyond followed in calm steps as if he was taking in each moment and memorizing each detail as he stepped forward. The detective they were closing in on walked down the street alongside a black-haired woman whose beauty rivaled that of Misa, in a more mature and proper manner.

Reaching Raito in her attempt to escape Beyond, Misa launched herself towards him and caused him to fall to the ground. "Raito! You would not believe what happened to Misa. Meanie-san took the-"

Raito knew Beyond had taken the note, he had instructed him to do so. He interrupted before Misa let the entire city know Kira's weapon was being held in Beyond's hand. In order to interrupt her, Raito leaned up from his painful position on the ground and embraced the blond in a hug.

In her instant of bliss, Misa forgot what she had been trying to tell Raito and stood to allow him to get up. Misa's attention turned to the women she was not familiar with. Beyond did the same and faced Takada for a moment, before turning to Raito and mouthing something in a language Takada would most likely not know. Seeming to respond to Beyond, Raito glanced at Takada with an appearance of shock.

Often, Raito neglected to check the name and date above individual's heads when he speaks to them. Doing so also made life seem too fragile. He had not checked the date of death on Takada since he began speaking to her and was astonished at the relatively short time she had left. Glancing at the number again, Raito realized she would last for a few more days, but no more than that.

If she really was supporting Kira, Takada could soon report something that would upset the new Kira. Maybe she would change sides or say something that Kira did not want to hear. Either way it was best to leave Takada while Beyond and him investigated the location she had mentioned.

"Is there something on my face? You are staring," Takada suddenly questioned.

"Forgive me; I was wondering if you would assist my friend for a few days while we investigate the location you mentioned?"

"You want me to assist Miss Amane?" Her voice seemed irked, which Raito could understand. The idea of staying with the model for an extended period of time would make anyone upset. "That would be fine, when do you plan on leaving?"

"Now," Raito stated and began to walk towards the headquarters where L was still residing. Waiting for L to leave for the European country Kira may have relocated to, Raito would follow and use the same method of travel.

* * *

Taking in the harsh bustle of the airport she had arrived at, Sayu surveyed the area for a television. Ryuk had been complaining he was bored, so Sayu needed to pacify him by killing more criminals. Although the broadcast was in English, Sayu could make out the words 'crime' and 'criminal' from her English classes and she wrote down names based on these.

"Ryuk, where are we?" Sayu asked once her killings were quite numerous.

"An airport in New England. Remember, I told you about their forty varieties of apples."

"If we are in England, why is there an American flag?"

* * *

It's never been always  
Who's the liar  
I'm the coward  
The letter read like this...

Of all the sinners I walk before  
I can't deny  
Somehow you're seeing it  
So you're the one who took the fall  
and it's bringing us together, together


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's note: Please don't get mad for the insanely long wait. I would like to thank _L Ninja_ for her work as beta for this chapter.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own th****e "Rev Theory" l****yrics.**

Another Detective**  
**

* * *

Chapter 27

Deeply involved in the predicament and still relatively unsure of her exact location, Sayu's flustered body trudged forward in careful steps then quick jittery movements. Her slapdash pace brought her straight into a collision with another woman in the airport. Delaying briefly to respond to the older blonde woman who had fallen to the floor, Sayu begged her memory to bring back the apology she had learned in English.

"I am sorry," was the heavily accented and slightly unsympathetic statement from Sayu as she helped the women to right herself.

"No problem, are you visiting from Japan?" Halle Bullook, according to the name provided by the eye trade Sayu had undergone, questioned politely. When Halle saw that Sayu was hesitating, she quickly continued to speak but in Japanese rather than English. "Do not act so afraid, not all the stories about people in America are true. Though, the new policy towards Kira the president wants to administer is insane and is encouraging murder."

Unlike Raito, Sayu did not have the ability to read into people's emotions based on their manner of speech, but this woman made her exasperation obvious. It was likely she had some direct involvement in the issue of Kira. Sayu doubted the woman had realized how much she had given away or was too intertwined in her own thoughts to care. "Excuse me, you seem very nice. Can you by chance tell me the exact area I am in?"

"You're at Bradley International Airport, Connecticut," Halle quickly replied. She seemed visibly unaffected by the fact that Sayu had not known her location but the CIA agent's mind quickly changed gears and focused on an analysis of the girl.

It would be difficult, even if the Japanese child was traveling with family, for her to be unaware of her location with many signs boasting of the 'Gateway to New England'-which was the Bradley airport. After a moment of thought, Halle went on to indirectly question her. "Would you like help finding the individuals or place you are visiting?"

"I actually have a friend that is showing me around the area," Sayu continued to speak in Japanese so she could understand the women's responses when she did the same.

"Not to doubt your statement but shouldn't your friend have related the area you're in?"

"My friend, Ryuk, left me stranded in the middle of this airport and I have no idea what to do," the only untruth to the reply was the fact that Ryuk was her friend.

"That is horrible. I could give you a ride to a nice place you could stay; do you have any money to stay at a hotel?"

Money would have been a wise piece of luggage for flight to another country. Unfortunately, Sayu had not been in right mind while making preparations for travel. "No, I don't have any money," Sayu whispered meekly.

"I came to the airport to contact a friend. Once I speak to them we will be able to find a place for you. May I ask what your name is?" From a distance, Halle could see Stephen approaching with word on the Kira supporters activities in Japan.

"Sayu," she stopped before giving her last name. In the future, another Kira could use the name to end Sayu's life and she did not want that to occur. Glancing at the women, Sayu saw that her eyes were focused on something else. A man was walking directly towards them.

Carrying a cell phone alongside him and wearing a wearing an agitated grimace, the dark haired man drew closer but slowed when he saw someone was speaking to Halle. "Halle, I need to speak to you regarding Rester's situation," he began once he arrived in earshot of the women.

"Go ahead, Sayu is not a danger to the situation," Halle addressed his reluctance to immediately relay the information.

"The evidence in Japan that led us here has another lead. Rester was watching a witness of the death at the airport and she spoke of something taking place in England. Takada was the woman's name, and she spoke to a young man named Raito Yagami."

Beside the two, Sayu, subconsciously, edged away from the individuals who were clearly investigating Kira.

* * *

Balancing paperwork and coffee in his hands, Matsuda struggled to enter the door of the Kira investigation headquarters. His thoughts wandering to the possible changes after L left. Unimaginative, Matsuda mainly felt the amount of snacks consumed by the group of investigators over the course of a day would be dramatically reduced.

Sound behind him made Matsuda lose the balance he had strived to create between the coffee and paperwork. After the coffee was already dressing his white shirt and the papers spread across the sidewalk and roadway, Matsuda realized the sound was merely footsteps. Salvaging a few sheets of paper from the concrete, Matsuda prepared to be greeted by the walker that had made him lose his balance.

"Good morning," Raito stated calmly before offering to help with the mess Matsuda had made on the side walk. Despite his obvious need of the help, Matsuda refused and became overwhelmed with excitement at the opportunity to ask Raito about his upcoming venture with L.

"Raito, are you prepared for your trip with L? He told us he would be leaving with you, but you don't seem to have anything with you."

"Most of my things that were not at headquarters were burned in the fire," was the solemn but not entirely truthful response. A decent portion of his things were stored at the two story building Beyond dwelled in.

"Raito, do you have any pictures of your family left?"

"No Matsuda, although I am sure I can find pictures of Sayu and my parents online," Raito's mood began to grow brisk and harsh.

"I was wondering because I have a picture of them from several years ago; I brought it in case you wanted to keep it," as Matsuda said this he pulled something out of the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to Raito. Although the upper right-hand edge had a coffee stain, the picture was still intact. Raito began to study the photo, the memory causing his eyes to glaze.

In the image, Soichiro and Sachiko sat on the couch in a slouched and exhausted pose. Beside them in the picture, Raito was turned to the side and telling Sayu about his trip to Europe. His parents were told it was a prize for a history contest he entered, and the trip had been. However, there had also been several cases solved by Smile in each European country Raito had visited.

Smiling at the photograph, Raito remembered Sayu saying that if she did not have their parents to tie her down to Japan she would move to Europe and start a new life. Maybe it was fitting that after his mother, father, and Sayu had died Ratio would once again be visiting the area.

"Thank you Matsuda," Raito softly mutter and then looked towards the door Matsuda had been trying to open when he approached. Opening the door, Raito turned to Matsuda. "Ready to say goodbye to L and me for the next few weeks?"

Without responding, Matsuda followed after Raito as he seemed to complete only a portion of the security features of the building by finding ways around the less convenient security checks. It almost seemed as if Raito was avoiding the view of the building's cameras, as if he was trying to hide from L. Could it have been Raito who caused the loss of the Death Notes? Matsuda contemplated this as they drew closer to the main room.

* * *

_Admin 325600: His plane should be leaving in a few hours. _

_User 564791: How lovely to hear. L will be gracing us with his presence; does this mean we will be able to assist in the process of finding Kira? _

_User 807354: If anyone is going to help him, I am. _

_Admin 325600: Both of you may be able to help; you need to ask L when he arrives. _

_User 186532: What about Smile? _

_Admin 325600: I do not understand what you mean. _

_User 807354: Matt and I have been going over some information that implies Smile and L had direct contact. _

_User 564791: Are you referring to the email I sent to Matt with such information? _

_User 00000B: Smile is coming. _

_Admin 325600: Beyond! How did you connect to this server? _

_User 00000B: Roger, inform L that the notebook he has misplaced will be at Whammy's by the time he arrives. _

_User 00000B signs off. _

_User 564791: …notebook? Kira-2 mentioned a notebook while trying to lure the first Kira.

* * *

_

Pulling the cool metal door handle of the fridge, L peered into the fridge in order to obtain a cake or some other form of sugar to enrich his deductive abilities. A cake that looked eerily familiar smiled at him from within the fridge. The cake was identical to one he had received from Smile shortly after the second Kira had emerged: fresh white frosting, a mix of chocolate and vanilla cake, together with a blue decorative smiley face.

Lifting the dessert, L stood transfixed by the continents of the refrigerator. Behind the cake, a Death Note was propped up. L observed the notebook for a moment before reaching to take it out. It was obvious that Raito had placed the book of death in this location, but the question of why remained. Raito knew L would be the first to find it in this location, which indirectly meant the younger detective only wanted L to find it.

When this occurrence was added to the fact that Raito continued to hide his identity from the investigators, L could see a pattern of distrust. Either Raito felt a case of paranoia or he thought one of the investigators was siding with Kira.

It would make sense; whoever set fire to the Yagami residence must have known of Raito and had involvement with Kira. Only members of the investigation team would have been in close enough contact with Rem to know she could want to kill Raito's family. Either that or a member of Raito's family had…L prevented that line of reasoning from entering his mind.

Neither Raito's mother nor his sister was affiliated with Kira prior to her death. If that had been the case there would be evidence, or some sort of text response that had been sent to Raito. A message, possibly, trying to ask for his support despite her activities as Kira, would prove the involvement of either of his family members. However, Raito had not brought up such a message.

Besides, the fire would have occurred following the death of the two women. There could have been a third occupant in the Yagami residence, someone that would have seen the dead bodies of both Raito's mother and sister. And, if this individual supported Kira it might have led them to burn down the house.

Considering this possibility, L pondered the possibility of this probable third person being Kira. If they burned down the house and then fled to another country, then their actions could be seen in the shift of killings from Japan to other parts of the world. Maybe it was in the best interests of the Kira investigation that L was heading to Whammy's.

Pulled away from the initial location of the heart attacks, L would easily be able to relocate to the location where a majority of the killings were occurring without having to give another excuse to the task force. Holding the cake in one hand and the Death Note in the thumb and index finger of the other hand, L turned to face the other occupant of the room.

"I decided you liked the cake, and no one else in the task force would have moved it to be able to see the notebook."

"This will heighten the suspicions of Ukita and Mogi."

"Since I am coming with you to Winchester's L-mill, their suspicions will not make too much of a difference."

"Unless, they continue to investigate you even after we find Kira. Especially, if you plan on giving up the identity of Yagami Raito."

"Unlike you, I prefer to have the one of my identities as a recreational activity. I am not going to give up Raito since my family is gone; Smile is an alias. I am sorry if I belittle your friend, Smile, by making him into a title."

"I am not implying that I had an in-depth friendship with the computerized identity of Smile."

"Then maybe I should quote an old text message of yours: 'I don't want a cookie from Smile, I want a kiss'."

"That was merely a joke exchanged to lighten the situation."

Smiling as if seriously amused by the conversation, Raito let out a brief laugh. "It was quite funny and it still is. Unless, you were honestly requesting that as the celebration for catching Kira."

"Let us catch Kira before discussing celebration plans."

"We caught the original Kira."

"Raito-kun mentions this despite the fact that the original Kira's Death Note is likely the same one the current Kira is using."

Diverting from the subject to avoid the prospect of searching for Kira momentarily, Raito responded with question regarding the upcoming trip. "B has left ahead of me for the trip, so I did not have him look up when your plane is leaving so when will we be going?"

Glancing at a clock on the door of the fridge, L stared for a minute before responding with a quick and clear response: "Now."

* * *

Intently, Raito studied the features of the building with eye to memorize the entrances and possible exits for future reference. L had already gone inside and began to speak to an older man by the name of Roger. Most of the residents of the building were asleep or pretending to be asleep because it was an hour after midnight in the area, contrary to Raito's unadjusted watch.

Noticing a figure next to the fence, Raito cautiously approached. A puff of smoke surrounded the figure, and a square shaped glow was coming from the individual's hands.

Raito approached until he could see the features of the person that were exposed by the dim light of what was exposed to be a gaming system. With the features of the person's face came the red letters that exposed Mail's name, and his last day-but Raito tried not to linger on that.

"Do you smoke?" Mail asked after noticing Raito near him; his voice made him seem to be about fourteen years old.

"I don't smoke," Raito stated and paused for a moment before whispering, "Tobacco."

Mail quirked one side of his mouth in a half smile before deciding to question Raito. "Are you new here?"

"Visiting."

"I'm Matt."

"You can call me Light."

* * *

I know it's not too late  
Even though the innocence is scarred  
There's still tomorrow (What if I could see)  
I could just escape  
Close my eyes and dream about  
A sentimental vision  
A vision I could feel

This time I won't go softly (I never wanted to be)  
Refuse to simply fade away (I never wanted to be)  
Still holding on 'cause this is  
Far from over


	28. Chapter 28 (Part 1)

**Author's note: I felt obligated to post this unfinished, miniature chapter; it has been sitting around for years,_ literally_. Almost once a month, I get a message from a reader who wants to know if I will continue. Honestly, I want to. However, what we want to do is not always what we do. Hopefully, I will.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own th****e "Hurts" l****yrics.**

Another Detective

* * *

Chapter 28 (Part 1)

Beyond often wondered why he ever agreed to this job, to be Smile's assistant. When he met Raito, the detective had been younger than him and more close minded. In fact, years ago, Beyond would have pegged Raito Yagami as the type of person who could be so consumed in his sense of justice that he became a killer.

Smile could have been Kira in another life. And, Beyond could have been yet another victim of the vigilante. The thought of Raito bringing about his demise caused a shudder to pass through the red and black haired man's form.

Glancing down at the inconspicuous notebook in his hand, Beyond reassured himself that the nightmare he was imaging had little place in reality. The death note was doubtlessly one of the most interesting weapons in existence; the ability to kill with a name was fear-inspiring, dreadful, and simultaneously wonderful. Without the joint effort of Smile and L, Beyond doubted the world would ever see the end of Kira.

For a moment, less than a second, Beyond wondered if he could keep the book. It was not as if he would actually use it; he would just have it as a keepsake, a souvenir if you will. Glancing around to check for any potential watchers, Beyond made a decision and opened the book. The white pages at the beginning were lined with names, but the rest was empty and begging to be written in.

"Like my Death Note, Beyond Birthday?"

* * *

The bleak darkness of the night was contrasted by the artificial light shining forth from the second story of the quaint English brick manor. Due to the stark difference in lighting, the side of the window facing the inside of the building acted as a mirror. If the occupants of the room were to look in the clean glass plane at that moment they would see themselves. However, as the window plane recorded, the reflections of the two men were focused on one another.

One of the two was perched on the chair in his usual, though unusual if it had been anyone else, position with his knees drawn up to his chest and his bare toes exposed as the support of his body. Across from the awkward man, a well-dressed and obviously traditional man gazed at the papers in front of him. Both men seemed consumed by unspeakable agony.

L had been a resident of Whammy's House, of course, which meant that he was not unfamiliar with loss. At some point, he had lost his parents; he lost many friends due to his superior intelligence; he lost Beyond due to the desire the boy had to become a murderous image of himself. Watari though was the most terrible loss he had faced. The man had always supported him and basically created the image of 'L the great detective.' Raising a hand to his mouth in contemplation, the dark haired detective pressed his thumb against his lips.

"It's as much your fault as it is mine," the well composed man spoke softly.

"You have no blame, Roger." L's words, though sincere, offered no comfort.

"I could have told you both not to take on such a case. It is unnatural; the way Kira kills is something that cannot be understood by our feeble minds, no matter how intelligent we may be."

Biting harshly at his own thumb, L took offense at Roger's assertion. "I almost caught Kira. Any criminal can be caught and justice will prevail."

"But at what cost?"

And that was the question of the year.

* * *

Mail examined the man standing across from him. What type of name was Light? And, based on the wording and the public fear of Kira, the name was a pseudonym. So, why would a person make up the name? It was almost pretentious. The word light is often used for wisdom or guidance. This person could be claiming unspeakable amounts of knowledge that illuminates those around him.

Or, it could be related to his real name. If it had been a woman, and not of Japanese descent, Mail would have guessed Lucy or Ellen. Searching his knowledge of common male names in Japan, he could off hand think of two names for light: Hiroaki and Toshiaki. However, another possibility occurred to him, maybe the name was a pronunciation of another name.

"So your name is Raito?" Mail asked, feeling confident in his conclusion.

"And yours is Mail, right?" Raito's question made Mail's feeling of confidence and security vanish. "It looks like it is about time to go in," the older of the two continued without acknowledging the change of attitude in the other. "The weather is a bit chilly."

Walking with a deliberately slow pace, Raito allowed Mail to stay in step with him. Neither of them tried to start up a conversation again. As if to add to the somber mood, the light from Mail's game finally died out.

Raito glanced at the sky, where the stars seemed especially bright. For a single moment, he imagined a constellation that formed a smiling face, and then it vanished. The doors to Whammy's House creaked as Raito pulled them open. Whispers could be heard down the corridor; insomnia and genius children always seemed to have a correlation.

"Which way to Roger's office?"

"Upstairs and to the left," Mail drawled over a forged yawn and began to walk away from the staircase.

Following the directions given, Raito began up the staircase and listened for the subtle noises of the young boy following him. Hopefully, L would not be talking about anything too personal for the unsolicited audience.

When he reached the well-lit office to the right of the staircase, Raito entered without hesitation.

* * *

And I won't let you drown, when the water's pulling you in  
I'll keep fighting, I'll keep fighting.  
The rain's going to follow you wherever you go.  
The clouds go black and the thunder rolls  
And I see lightning, and I see lightning

When the World surrounds you, I'll make it go away  
Paint the sky with silver lining.


End file.
